1892 Rare Book Set - Les Miserables by Victor Hugo Complete in Five Volumes
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Author: Victor Hugo.
Title: Les Misérables (Complete in Five Volumes: I. Fantine, II. Cosette, III. Marius, IV. The Idyll and the Epic, V. Jean Valjean).
Publisher: Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1892.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7.5 X 5 inches.
Pages: Complete in five volumes; each volume individually paginated (444, 413, 377, 522, 442 pages).
Binding: Attractive and very good publisher’s original patterned cloth bindings in pale red and olive, with gilt titles and decorative spine panels. The bindings are beautifully preserved with only light rubbing to extremities, minor bumping to corners, and some gentle fading to spines; overall tight and square (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing - as shown). A lovely set with a notably clean interior.
Illustrations: With five engraved frontispieces, including portraits of key characters (Fantine, Cosette, Marius, Gavroche, Valjean) and a frontispiece portrait of Victor Hugo. All illustrations present and well preserved, with original tissue guards.
Estimate: (USD 350–500).
The book: This is an elegant 1892 five-volume English edition of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, Les Misérables, presented in a refined and highly decorative Little, Brown & Co. library edition. This set reflects the enduring popularity of Hugo’s sweeping historical novel, which explores justice, redemption, love, and revolution in 19th-century France. With its handsome bindings and sharp illustrations, this edition was clearly intended as a prestigious set for collectors or refined readers of the time, bringing the timeless power of Hugo’s prose into English-speaking households.
The author: Victor Hugo (1802–1885), one of the greatest figures of French literature, was a poet, novelist, and dramatist whose works left an indelible mark on Romanticism. Best known for Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Hugo’s writings combined social criticism with deep humanism, passionately advocating for the marginalized. His literary achievements were matched by his political activism, making him a symbol of both artistic genius and moral conscience in 19th-century Europe.