“A REVELATION OF WHAT AN HISTORICAL NOVEL COULD BE”: VERY SCARCE 1833 ENGLISH EDITION OF VICTOR HUGO'S CLASSIC NOVEL, THE FIRST PUBLISHED UNDER THE TITLE, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME

HUGO, Victor. Hunchback of Notre Dame. London: Richard Bentley, 1833. Small octavo (4-1/4 by 6-3/4 inches), early three-quarter green morocco, marbled boards, all edges gilt. $6500.

Second edition in English, published within months of the first edition, and the first edition with the title of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, with engraved frontispiece portrait and additional engraved title page.

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a revelation of what an historical novel could be" (Reid, 296). First published in 1831 as Notre-Dame de Paris, Hugo's book is "a stunning novelistic representation of late-medieval Paris and its central point… [While it] firmly rejects the idealization of the Middle Ages frequent among Romantic apologists for the ancien régime… Hugo's novel was a hugely influential revelation of the descriptive intensity of Romantic prose" (Hollier, 662). The book has seen numerous screen adaptations, including director William Dieterle's 1939 version starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara—the most expensive RKO production to that date—and the 1996 animated feature from Disney Studios. This is the first edition with the title Hunchback of Notre Dame. Because of this, it is sometimes identified as the first edition in English, but was preceded three months earlier by a three-volume translation by William Hazlitt with the title Notre Dame: A Tale of the Ancien Régime. Published as part of Bentley's "Standard Novels" Series, but without the second "Standard Novels" title page. Without leaf of reviews at rear. Mahaffey, 165.See Sadleir 1240. Contemporary autograph bookplate.

Light expert cleaning to engraved frontispiece portrait and title pages, two leaves with unobtrusive ink notations, chiefly marginal. Light rubbing to marbled paper boards, morocco with expert restoration and joint repairs. A handsome copy.