Alexandre Dumas père | A collection of five early English translations, 1846-1851, 5 works in 4 volumes

Alexandre Dumas, père.

A collection of early English translations, five works in four volumes, comprising:

i) The prisoner of If: or, the revenge of Monte-Christo. London: George Peirce, [1846].8vo (180 x 119mm.), lithographed frontispiece and title-page, illustrations by H. Carter, final advertisement leaf, later green calf-backed boards with black-tooled border, spine gilt in compartments with morocco lettering-piece, occasional light foxing, binding very slightly rubbed, head of upper cover slightly faded

An abridged translation, by William Francis Ainsworth, of The Count of Monte Cristo. It originally appeared in Ainsworth's Magazine (edited by his cousin, William Harrison Ainsworth) between December 1845 and May 1846; this book edition was originally priced at 3 shillings in a gilt cloth binding.

RARE: Copac records just one copy of this book edition, in the British Library (without the final advertisement leaf), and another is listed in Worldcat, at the University of Virginia.

ii) Memoirs of a physician. Part I, Joseph Balsamo. Vol. I (-III). London and Belfast: Simms & M'Intyre, 1847-1848. 3 parts in one volume, 8vo (163 x 98mm.), contemporary half calf over marbled boards, marbled edges, lacking all three series titles and advertisement leaf at end of vol.1, vol.3 title-page and pp.13-16 and 55-58 slightly short, neatly rebacked

FIRST COMPLETE ENGLISH EDITION of Dumas's first novel in the Mémoires d'un médecin series, named for the Comte de Cagliostro, originally published from 1846. A partial English translation of just the first 57 chapters was advertised by George Peirce in 1846. These volumes form part of Simms and M'Intyre's Parlour Library series (volumes 2, 10 and 16), which would have been announced at the start of each volume in the place of a half-title. The delay in publication between volumes 1 and 2 was caused by a lawsuit between Dumas and the periodical Le Constitutionnel.

iii) Marguerite de Valois: an historical romance. London: David Bogue, 1847. 8vo (177 x 107mm.), half-title, lithographed frontispiece portrait of the author, later half leather over marbled boards by Wm. H. Talcott & Bro. of Hartford, Connecticut, with ticket on inside lower cover, frontispiece slightly stained, occasional light foxing, last few leaves lightly browned, joints repaired 

An early English edition of La reine Margot, from the European Library series, as stated on the half-title; this is a reissue of Bogue's 1846 text with the date altered on the title-page to 1847. A more condensed English translation was previously published by George Peirce, undated but probably in 1845-1846; the present translation was the one used for later English editions.

iv) The Forty-Five Guardsmen.... With an authentic portrait. London: E. Appleyard, 1848, lithographed frontispiece portrait, 4 lithographed plates by H. Carter and F.N. Shepherd

Les quarante-cinq, was a sequel to La dame de Monsoreau, and was first published in May-October 1847; this is THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. It was originally issued in 30 parts of eight pages each. This edition is recorded in just two copies in Copac, at the British Library and the University of Manchester.

v) [bound with:] The Black Tulip... with illustrations. London: E. Appleyard, 1851, steel-engraved illustrations by George Cruikshank within the text, 2 works in one volume, 8vo (245 x 153mm.), near-contemporary half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt in compartments, marbled edges, extremities slightly rubbed

VERY RARE EDITION OF La tulipe noire, "one of Dumas' daintiest shorter novels" (Reed, p. 253), which was was first published in 1850 by Baudry in Paris. A translation into English was published in New York in 1850 by W.F. Burgess. The present translation is not recorded by Munro, though F.W. Reed's A bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père (1933) states it should exist, though only by report from W.J. Harris, First printed translations into English of the great foreign classics (1909).

(iv) and (v) are both from Roscoe's Library Edition, one of several series of novels at the time which were priced cheaply to make them accessible.

LITERATURE:

i) Munro p. 94

ii) Monro p.125; Sadleir 3755A (entry for the Parlour Library)

iii) Munro p. 101 (with the publication date as 1846)

iv) Munro p.131-132

v) Not listed in Munro, nor does it appear in Cruikshank bibliographies