Victor Hugo – Sa vie – Ses oeuvres

First edition.

Bradel binding in full brown roan, flat spine gilt-tooled, covers  with Alfred Piat's gilt monogram in the corners, central gilt stamp of his ex-libris, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, top edge gilt. Contemporary binding for Alfred Piat. Rubbing to corners and lower spine-end, some foxing.

Illustrated with two portraits of Hugo as frontispieces.

The finest copy of this biography of Victor Hugo published during his lifetime, bearing the supralibros of the great bibliophile Alfred Piat.

Out of modesty, the author of Les Misérables declined to review the manuscript of Barbou's biography: ""I shall not read, Sir, the book you have published; I have always acted thus with regard to editions and publications of which I have been the subject. I do not possess the manuscript of any of these books, not even the one by Madame Victor Hugo. It seems to me that in this matter, as in all others, I ought to be part of the public." (facsimile of the manuscript letter bound in the volume).

Provenance: Alfred Piat, famous bibliophile whose collection of some 6,000 antiquarian and modern volumes was sold between 1898 and 1899. Listed in the sale catalogue (Catalogue de la bibliothèque de feu M. Alfred Piat, Volume 3, no. 5134). Piat was a founding member of the Société des Bibliophiles contemporains in 1889, and later, in 1895, of the Société des Cent bibliophiles. His ex-libris was stamped on the covers, and his initials placed in all four corners of each board : "He had designed his own ex-libris, which he had engraved by Moïse Stern (1826–1915), a medal engraver [...] : his monogram appears on the page of an open book, topped with a radiant sun and a star; below, a ribbon bears the inscription « LIBRO LIBER »; to the side lie a broken Corinthian column, a chain and cogwheel, a skull and crossbone, a sheaf of wheat, and a sickle" (Jean-Paul Fontaine, Histoire de la Bibliophilie, post of 18 October 2018).

Handsome copy in contemporary binding of "this book, which encapsulates the noblest and most glorious of all human lives" (Alfred Duquesne, preface).