The Count of Monte-Cristo.

DUMAS, Alexandre [Alexander].

$82,000.00

Item Number: 129384

London: 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, the Richard Manney copy. Octavo, 2 volumes, original publisher’s terracotta cloth, decoratively blind-embossed, gilt titles to the spine. Twenty wood-engraved plates after Henry Valentin. In near fine condition with only light rubbing to the extremities and toning, with the bookplate of legendary collector Richard Manney. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell and chemise box. A superior example, scarce in the original cloth, with 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). First published in 1845-46, Dumas’ “most brilliantly successful novel” (Harvey & Heseltine, 232) expresses “the frustrated dreams of its era and the deep aspirations of Dumas himself to unlimited knowledge, power and fame” (Amelita Marinetti). The story takes place in France, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean during the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France. It begins on the day that Napoleon left his first island of exile, Elba, beginning the Hundred Days period when Napoleon returned to power. The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book, an adventure story centrally concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness. It centers on a man who is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes from jail, acquires a fortune, and sets about exacting revenge on those responsible for his imprisonment. "The Count of Monte Cristo has become a fixture of Western civilization's literature, as inescapable and immediately identifiable as Mickey Mouse, and the story of Little Red Riding Hood (Lucy Sante). "One of the best thrillers ever written" (Reid, 134).