1,400.00€
A highly unusual and historically fascinating contemporary Constantinople printing of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, issued by the Imprimerie de la Presse d’Orient in Constantinople in 1862–1863.
Published in the same year as the celebrated original editions issued in Brussels and Paris, this remarkable volume provides an exceptionally interesting example of the rapid international dissemination of Hugo’s masterpiece. Les Misérables became an international publishing phenomenon almost immediately after its appearance, reaching readers far beyond the principal French publishing centres.
In the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople was an important centre of French-language printing and publishing, serving the city’s substantial Francophone, diplomatic and expatriate communities. The present volume is therefore of interest not only as an early edition of one of the great works of nineteenth-century literature, but also as a document of the international circulation of French culture and the book trade in the Ottoman capital.
The novel’s five divisions are bound together in one contemporary volume, with the binding attributed to:
C.A. Gerard, Relieur, Constantinople
The contents are:
Première Partie — Fantine — 336 pp.
Deuxième Partie — Cosette — 311 pp.
Troisième Partie — Marius — 273 pp.
Quatrième Partie — Idylle de la rue Plumet et Épopée de la rue Saint-Denis — 412 pp.
Cinquième Partie — Jean Valjean — 332 pp.
Of particular interest is the presence of Victor Hugo’s famous Hauteville-House preface of 1862, an important text associated with the publication of Les Misérables.
The first two parts are dated 1862, while Parts IV and V are dated 1863. Part III cannot be dated with certainty from the surviving copy because its title page and pp. 1–2 are absent; the surviving text begins on p. 3.
In Part V, Jean Valjean, pp. 325–326 are missing.
Author: Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
Title: Les Misérables
Printer: Imprimerie de la Presse d’Orient
Place of publication: Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Dates: 1862–1863
Language: French
Format: Five parts bound in one volume
Dimensions: approximately 21 cm × 15 cm
Binding: Contemporary half-leather with marbled paper-covered boards
Binder: C.A. Gerard, Relieur, Constantinople
The volume retains its contemporary binding, which is structurally sound, with expected age-related rubbing and wear to the leather, corners, spine edges and boards.
The paper exhibits the normal toning, foxing and occasional staining associated with a book of this age. There are signs of handling and age throughout, but the volume remains legible and presentable.
The principal textual deficiencies are as follows:
Please study all photographs carefully, as they form an integral part of the condition report.
The importance of this volume lies less in its being a conventional French first edition than in its extremely unusual place within the international publishing history of Les Misérables.
The present copy is a contemporary Constantinople imprint, produced in the Ottoman Empire virtually at the moment when Hugo’s novel was conquering the European book market. Its appearance so soon after the celebrated Paris and Brussels editions demonstrates the extraordinary speed with which Hugo’s work could circulate through international and regional publishing networks.
French-language books played an important role in the intellectual and cultural life of nineteenth-century Constantinople. This edition provides a tangible connection between Hugo’s literary world and the Francophone community of the Ottoman capital.
Such regional French-language issues are considerably less familiar to collectors than the principal Paris and Brussels editions. They are particularly valuable to the study of international book history, French-language printing outside France and the cultural history of the Ottoman Empire.
The survival of the five parts together in a single contemporary binding further enhances the interest of this example.
This volume will be of particular interest to collectors of:
An evocative and highly unusual piece of nineteenth-century French and Ottoman publishing history, offering a rare glimpse into the remarkably rapid international reach of Hugo’s Les Misérables at the very moment of its first appearance.
