Notre-Dame de Paris.

HUGO, Victor.

$48,000.00

Item Number: 139559

Paris: Charles Gosselin, 1831.

First edition, first printing of Hugo’s masterpiece, one of only 1,100 examples. Octavo, 2 volumes, bound in half calf. The publisher Charles Gosselin published the novel on 16 March 1831 in an edition of 1,100 copies as was his usual practice. It was such a sensation that an additional three printings had to be published the same year. The first impression of 1100 copies was separated into four groups, each bearing a fictitious edition statement on the title-page, a scheme designed to make the public believe that the novel was selling rapidly. “This first edition is the rarest of all the works of Victor Hugo; it has had a resounding impact worldwide, and is one of the most difficult titles of the Romantic period to obtain” (Carteret). In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Rare and desirable.

“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.