The Count of Monte-Cristo.

DUMAS, Alexandre [Alexander].

Item Number: 133602

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 three quarters calf over marbled boards, gilt titles to the spine, illustrated with twenty wood-engraved plates after Henry Valentin. In near fine condition. From the library of tycoon Joseph A. Campbell with his bookplate to the front pastedown of each volume. Campbell was the founder of Campbell Soup Company, the company he founded in 1869. In 1895 the first can of ready-to-eat tomato soup was available. Rare and desirable with an exceptional provenance.

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).