[Rarebooks] OFFER: VICTOR HUGO'S NOTRE DAME DE PARIS, KEEPSAKE EDITION.

[Laderman]

HUGO, VICTOR.:  NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS. Paris: [Plassan for] Eugene 
Renduel, 1836. First illustrated edition (eighth overall). 8vo 21.5 x 
13.1 cm., [Iv], 631, [1] pp. With engraved title page and eleven 
plates by Finden, Lacour, and others, after Johannot, Raffet, Rogier 
and Rouargue. Green polished and blind stamped calf quadruple ruled 
lines at the edges of the boards, and fleurettes at the corners, AEG. 
Spine divided into 5 boxes, 4 with ruled lines and decorative 
fleurettes and the fifth with the title. The book is recased with the 
green calf spine laid down on similarly colored cloth. The end papers 
in a very tight and small marbling. Aside from a little wear to the 
edges and corners, and some very light, scattered foxing. a VG copy. 
The first illustrated edition of Hugo's greatest novel and a fine 
example of romantic book illustration. It contains three chapters 
that were part of the original manuscript, but were not previously 
printed, as they had been lost at the time of the original 
publication. The image of the hunchback in the plate opposite P. 462 
is that which Lon Chaney followed in his characterization. "There 
were two editions of Notre-Dame de Paris with these steel engravings, 
one in three volumes and this "Keepsake" edition in a single volume 
on thin paper. The illustrations by Louis Boulanger, the Johannot 
brothers, Raffet, and Camille Rogier are closer to the spirit of the 
novel than those in any later edition.  Tony Johannot's several 
versions of Quasimodo and Esmeralda are the most familiar of the 
book's designs, but even more striking is Raffet's darkly sinister 
drawing for the chapter whimsically entitled "usefulness of windows 
with a river view" (p. 370). Known to few readers because it is 
usually missing from the book (present in this copy), it shows Claude 
Frollo about to plunge his dagger into the back of Esmeralda's lover 
before escaping to the Seine" (Ray). Carteret notes that this 
Livre-Keepsake is the model for many great French romantic 
illustrated books which followed. Ray, The Art of the French 
Illustrated Book, 223. Carteret III, 300;  Sander 344. Vicaire IV, 
col. 258. HBS 53342. $1250.00

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