HUGO, Victor

Napoléon Le Petit

London & Brussels: Jeffs / J. Mertens, 1852. 12mo (15cm). Contemporary deep brown cloth over green cloth-covered boards, titled in gilt on spine; 385pp; half-title present. A tight, straight, and attractive copy, firmly Very Good, in a plain but attractive contemporary binding. Contemporary ownership signature of an F. Gommere (sp?). Text entirely in French.

Hugo's satirical attack on the reign of Napoléon III and the Second Empire, published in exile. Of the work, Hugo's biographer Frank T. Marzials calls it "one of the most superb pieces of invective in literature;" and indeed the invective was sufficient to get Hugo and his sons evicted from Belgium (where they had lodged since fleeing France). Hugo landed at Jersey that year and remained in the Channel Islands until the fall of the Empire in 1870. The bibliography of this title is particularly complicated given the clandestine nature of its publication and distribution; it would appear that all Jeffs printings from 1852 (of which there must have been several, given demand for the book in France) are indistinguishable.

Price: $200.00

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