The Count of Monte-Cristo.

DUMAS, Alexandre [Alexander].

Item Number: 27003

London: Chapman and Hall, 1846.

First edition in English of the author’s masterpiece, published just one year after the original French edition and before the American first. Octavo, 2 volumes, bound in full contemporary brown calf, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, gilt ruled to the front and rear panels. Twenty wood-engraved plates after Henry Valentin. In near fine condition. Rare and desirable.

The Count of Monte Cristo, in particular, is "perhaps the outstanding work of fiction to reveal the futility of human vengeance, even when it attains its utmost completeness. Maurice Baring calls it the most popular book in the world" (Frank Wild Reed). "One of the best thrillers ever written" (Reid, 134).