Author: Victor Hugo.
Title: Notre-Dame de Paris.
Publisher: Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 1888. Complete set of 2 volumes.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7.5 x 5 inches.
Pages: viii-349, vi-408 pages
Binding: Near fine publisher’s original teal cloth binding, beautifully preserved, gilt titles to spines, smooth cloth boards with blind-stamped borders (hinges fine - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. Upper edges gilt. A very well-preserved set!
Content: Near fine content (bright, tight and clean - as shown). A very fresh example.
Illustrations: Complete with two full-page engraved frontispieces (one per volume), each protected by its original tissue-guard and two full-page illustrations. Fine, atmospheric engravings depicting key scenes from the novel.

Estimate: (USD 300–350).

The books: This 1888 Library Edition of Notre-Dame de Paris is notable for its completeness and its crisp, elegant printing by Little, Brown. Issued in two volumes, this edition incorporates a special translation of Book V—including the chapter “Abbas Beati Martini”—and the important section on Architecture and Printing, previously omitted from English editions. Also included is Victor Hugo’s long note added to the edition of 1832, making this one of the most textually complete 19th-century English versions. The set’s  immaculate interiors make it an unusually well-preserved survivor.

The novel's original French title, Notre-Dame de Paris, is a metaphor: it refers to Notre Dame Cathedral, on which the story is centered, and Esmeralda, the novel's main character who is "our lady of Paris" and the center of the human drama within the story. Frederic Shoberl's 1833 English translation was published as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (which became the generally used title in English), which refers to Quasimodo, Notre Dame's bellringer.

The author: Victor Hugo (1802–1885), towering figure of French Romanticism, was poet, novelist, dramatist, political exile, and national icon. Notre-Dame de Paris (1831), written to raise awareness of the cathedral’s neglected state, became a defining work of historical fiction and spurred a wave of Gothic revival across France. Arc de Triomphe funerary honors, vast political influence, and an unparalleled literary legacy ensure Hugo’s enduring place as one of the essential voices of 19th-century literature.