Is My The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• French true first: Notre-Dame de Paris, Charles Gosselin, Libraire, Paris, 1831, 2 volumes 8vo (collating approx. [8], 404 and [4], 536 pp.), published 16 March 1831, with wood-engraved title vignettes after Tony Johannot; complete sets retain the volume half-titles with their verso advertisements, the fly-titles, and all nine interior half-titles
• The single impression of 1,100 copies was split by the publisher into four issues of roughly 275 copies each, the later three carrying fictitious 'deuxieme edition', 'troisieme edition' and 'quatrieme edition' statements on reprinted title-pages so the public would think the novel was flying off the shelves
• The first issue is therefore the one with NO edition statement, and the surer second test is that Hugo's name is ABSENT from the title-pages — his name was added along with the edition statements on the three reprinted titles
• All four issues are textually identical and share the printer's pagination errors in volume II (p
• 439 misnumbered '339', p
• 491 misnumbered '391'), so those errors confirm the 1831 impression but do not separate the first issue from the other three

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
4. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

Census claim confirmed on both halves. The French Gosselin edition of 1831 is the true first, and the title 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame' has no counterpart in Hugo's French — it originates with the 1833 Bentley translation, so every English-language 'Hunchback' first descends from a retitling. The major 'first thus' trap runs the other way from the usual: the 1831 Gosselin first is textually INCOMPLETE. Gosselin forced Hugo to drop three chapters — IV.6 'Impopularite' and both chapters of Book V, 'Abbas beati Martini' and the famous 'Ceci tuera cela' — because the manuscript would not fit the contracted two volumes. The first complete text is the Eugene Renduel edition, Paris, 3 volumes 8vo, on sale 17 December 1832, styled 'huitieme edition' although it is the first to print the three chapters and the added note in which Hugo invented a tale of lost-and-recovered manuscript pages. So Gosselin 1831 is the first edition and Renduel 1832 is the first complete edition; both are collected, and a dealer calling Renduel 1832 'the definitive first' is describing text, not priority.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club structure applies to an 1831/1833 book; the practical analogues are marketing fictions and later reissues. Gosselin's own 'deuxieme/troisieme/quatrieme edition' title-pages are not later editions at all — they are the same 1831 printing given false statements — but they are equally not first issue. Bentley reissued the Shoberl translation repeatedly in Standard Novels through the 1830s and 1840s, and those later impressions look nearly identical. Renduel's 1832 'eighth edition' and the illustrated Renduel of 1836 are later editions notwithstanding catalogue copy that promotes them as 'first complete' or 'first illustrated', and the Hetzel/Houssiaux collected sets and modern facsimiles are reprints.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris) a first edition?

A first edition of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris) by Victor Hugo (Charles Gosselin, Paris) is identified by: French true first: Notre-Dame de Paris, Charles Gosselin, Libraire, Paris, 1831, 2 volumes 8vo (collating approx.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. Census claim confirmed on both halves.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club structure applies to an 1831/1833 book; the practical analogues are marketing fictions and later reissues. Gosselin's own 'deuxieme/troisieme/quatrieme edition' title-pages are not later editions at all — they are the same 1831 printing given false statements — but they are equally not first issue. Bentley reissued the Shoberl translation repeatedly in Standard Novels through the 1830s and 1840s, and those later impressions look nearly identical. Renduel's 1832 'eighth edition' and

I have a first edition of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris) — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.