Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.
London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, & Searle, 1875. Illustrated by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou, engraved by Henri Théophile Hildibrand. First edition, seventh printing. Hardcover. This is the seventh printing of the first English language edition in the compellingly illustrated publisher’s original purple cloth stamped in gilt and black. This complete, unrestored copy is in very good minus overall condition. The binding is square and tight, though with shelf wear to the beveled edge corners and spine ends and light overall scuffing. The spine is mildly toned, but uniformly so and with black and gilt illustrations and print still clearly legible. The contents are clean and complete, including the one hundred and twelve illustrations. We find no appreciable spotting and no previous owner names. Imparting lovely Victorian London provenance, affixed to the upper left front pastedown is the tiny, printed bookseller’s ticket of “HARRISON, Bookseller (to the Queen), 59 Pall Mall”. There is mild age-toning, light soiling of the endpapers and the gilt page edges show some scuffing. The binding is protected beneath a clear, removable, mylar cover.
The first British edition, printed in late 1872 (though dated 1873) was the first English language edition, following the French first edition of 1870. Though erroneously designated “SEVENTH EDITION” on the title page, this copy is actually the 1875 seventh printing of the first British edition. The binding is illustrated just as that of the first printing, though in purple cloth rather than green.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is perhaps the most popular book of Verne’s science-fiction series Voyages extraordinaires (1863–1905), his herculean, 54-novel effort “to complete, before my working days are done, a series which shall conclude in story form my whole survey of the world’s surface and the heavens.”
“Professor Pierre Aronnax, the narrator of the story, boards an American frigate commissioned to investigate a rash of attacks on international shipping by what is thought to be an amphibious monster. The supposed sea creature, which is actually the submarine Nautilus, sinks Aronnax’s vessel, and he is held prisoner along with his devoted servant, Conseil, and Ned Land, a temperamental harpooner. The survivors meet Captain Nemo, an enigmatic misanthrope who leads them on a worldwide, yearlong underwater adventure. The novel is noted for its exotic situations, the technological innovations it describes, and the tense interplay of the three captives and Nemo (who reappears in Verne’s The Mysterious Island).”
Verne is one of the most translated authors in the world, and Twenty Thousand Leagues among the world's most translated books. The story was first serialized in the French periodical Magasin d’éducation et de recreation. Swiftly thereafter came French publication as a book, lavishly illustrated by Alphonse de Neuville and Édouard Riou, their illustrations engraved by Henri Théophile Hildibrand. These illustrations were used in the first British and first U.S. editions.
Prolific and inventive, Verne was already well-known when Twenty Thousand Leagues was published, but it was this adventure that would prove perhaps preeminently influential and enduringly popular among his canon, and serve as a foundational work in the emergent science fiction genre. Item #008487
Price: $2,500.00