This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/1/2023
HUGO, Victor (1802-1885). Les Misérables. Translated from the original French by Charles E. Wilbour. New York: Carleton, 1862.
5 volumes, tall 8vo. Contemporary olive morocco-backed marbled sides, gilt-lettered spines, single gilt fillets at ends, stamp-signed by Bennett (spines gently sunned, some light rubbing at ends).
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, issued the same year as the French edition, which was issued in a 10-volume format in wrappers. A close friend of Victor Hugo, Charles E. Wilbour began his translation of Les Misérables shortly before the book was published in France which allowed it to appear in the United States within a few months of the French release. The intense advertising campaign waged by Carleton resulted in Hugo’s work making it one of the most popular bestsellers of the nineteenth century, only behind Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in pre-Civil War American book sales.