Les Miserables.

First American edition and first edition in English of Victor Hugo's masterpiece. Octavo, bound in contemporary three quarters calf over marbled boards, gilt titles to the spine, raised bands, five volumes complete in one volume. Translated by Charles E. Wilbour. In nearÂcondition, previous owners names. Uncommon in this condition. Victor Hugoâs âgreat novel has been hailed as a masterpiece of popular literature, an epic poem in prose about God, humanity, and Hugo⦠Hugo hoped that Les Misà rables would be one of if not the âprincipal summitsâ of his body of works. Despite its length, complexity, and occasionally unbelievable plot and characterization, it remains a masterpiece of popular literature. It anticipates Balzac in its realism, but in its flights of imagination and lyricism, its theme of redemption, and its melding of myth and history, it is uniquely Hugoâ (Dolbow, 149, 214). Charles E. Wilbour was hired by the Carleton Publishing Company to translate Hugo's grand masterpiece, and he did so very quickly, allowing the first American edition to be published within months of its French release. The intense advertising campaign waged by Carleton resulted in massive sales for Les Misà rables, solidifying Hugo's epic in second place (behind only Uncle Tom's Cabin) in pre-Civil War American book sales. …