FIRST EDITION.
Two portraits of Hugo reproduced in the frontispiece.

A biography published during the lifetime of the author of Les Misérables, whose manuscript was submitted to him without success:

"I will not read the book you are publishing, Sir, as I have always acted in this way towards the editions and publications of which I have been the subject. I do not have the manuscript of any of these books, not even Madame Victor Hugo's work. It seems to me that in this matter, as in all others, I must be a member of the public. (letter reproduced in note).

A luxuriously produced copy for Alfred Piat (1826-1896), a wealthy bibliophile whose collection was dispersed in 1898 and 1899 (48 sales spread over four auctions). He was one of the founders of the Société des Bibliophiles Contemporains in 1889, then, in 1895, of the Société des Cent Bibliophiles.

His ex-libris is stamped on the centre of the plates (monogram on the page of an open book overhanging a ribbon with the inscription "LIBRO LIBER A Corinthian column, a chain and a cogwheel, along with a skull and crossbones, a sheaf of wheat and a sickle, lie broken in the corners.