Les Miserables; Five Volumes: Fantine, Cosette, Marius, Saint Denis, Jean Valjean
Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 2013. Limited Edition #368 / 500. Black Italian leather with four raised bands, all gilt edges, gilt titling and panel flourishes and decorative gilt rule on the covers. Each issue has a glossy litho on the cover, representative of the plot inside. Enhancing the presentation are brown marbled endpapers, gold silk bookmark. 7.5" x 11", ~350 pp. per volume. This is recreation of the 1887 published tome by George Routledge and Sons. Volume I alone has almost 100 illustrations. Included are illustrations from designs by De Neuville, Bayard, Morin, Valnay, and other eminent French artists. Utopia ivory matte paper by Appleton Papers. Cowhide leather imported from Italy. Lithography by Ambrose Printing. Custom Binding by Bindtech.
This monumental novel of the 19th century coalesces the major themes of the era: The cruelty of social injustice and poverty, Redemption through grace and love, The nature of true justice vs. rigid legalism, and The dignity of the common people. This is one of the most stunning and ambitious collections ever published by Easton Press. Original owner purchased for visual shelf value, not to be read. As a result, this is a stunning copy in near as new condition. Many pages are still unopened at the gilt edge. Item #3415
"As long as there shall exist, as a consequence of laws and customs, a social damnation artificially creating hells in the midst of civilization, and complicating the destiny which is divine with a fatality which is human; as long as the three problems of the age - the degradation of man by the proletariat, the ruin of woman by hunger, the atrophy of the child by the night - are not solved...as long as there shall be on earth ignorance and wretchedness, books of the nature of this one cannot be useless." (Preface - Victor Hugo).
Price: $2,750.00