Alexandre Dumas

Vingt ans après | suite des Trois mousquetaires ...

Paris, Baudry, libraire-éditeur (the half title reads: «Imprimé par Plon frères»), 1845, 10 vol. in 8°.

First edition.

Published as a serial in the periodical «Le siècle» before it was printed in book form, the second novel in the “Musketeer trilogy” was written in a few months, after the The three musketeers (1844) enjoyed enormous success.
Before and after the true first edition was printed many pirate editions appeared, all bearing the same text published in «Le siècle»: publishers simply copied each instalment and printed their books shortly after the last one has been released. Baudry, on the other hand, waited for Dumas to revise his novel before printing it: since the author modified a great number of sections, pirate editions and the first edition differ significantly — the latter being also far rarer than any of the former.

Vingt ans après is notoriously scarcer than Les trois mousquetaires: there seem to be only two copies of the book in libraries around the world (Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris and Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, both rebound). It has appeared four times at auctions in the past sixty years (each of these copies also rebound) and twice in sales catalogues.

Due to its rarity, the only other comparable Dumas title is Le comte de Monte-Cristo, which was sold for a record price by Christies in 2010 when it first appeared at auction.

Conditions

Original yellow wrappers with title printed to the front boards and spines. Extraordinary collection in superb condition: volumes I and VI uncut, the others full-margined; wrappers ever so slightly worn by time (the foot of the spine of volume VII is torn, though the volume itself is overall quite solid), but all are astonishingly well preserved, their original yellow still bright. Inside fine (foxing throughout; pages 265-8 of volume VII present marginal browning that does not reach the text), leaves clean. Extremely rare in any condition, almost unique thus. 

Bibliography
 
— G. Vicaire, Manuel de l’amateur de Livres du XIXe siècle III (Paris 1897), col. 368-s
— L. Carteret, Le Trésor du bibliophile romantique et moderne I (Paris 1924), p. 236
— H. Talvart & J. Place, Bibliographie des auteurs modernes de langue française V (Paris 1935), p. 14, n. 72.a
— F. W. Reed, A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père (London 1933); D. Munro, Alexandre Dumas père: A Bibliography (New York 1981)