Bragelonne, The Son of Athos or, Ten Years After; The Man in the Iron Mask [Le Vicomte de Bragelonne]

New York: Williams, 1848. First Edition. Very good. First American edition, probably the first in English anywhere (Williams Brothers, 288 pages, tiny type, translated by Thomas Williams). Rebound in marbled wrappers. A very good, complete copy. Reed (page 225) lists the 1848–50 Paris (Michel Lévy) edition as the first, and its 26 volumes are complete, and should be preferred as the authoritative first French book edition, but Lévy’s edition is a 6 figure rarity, and anyway, it’s probably preceded by the 4 Brussels editions that are also complete. Munro (a servant to his pattern) favors an incomplete New York edition in French (Feuilleton, 1847), followed (truncated) by a Brussels edition (Librairie de la rue de la fourche, 1847–48) another publisher who seems to have gone out of business half way through publication. Entering the realm of reality, Munro proposes Tarride’s Brussels edition, dated 1847–50, and 3 other editions from Brussels publishers (Alph. Lebègue, C. Muquardt and J. P. Meline) that are slightly earlier, or later, or concurrent.

Where our first American edition (also incomplete) fits into all this is an open question (Reed lists an 1857 Routledge edition as the first in English, but, of course, he’s wrong). Unreliable records claim that Feuilleton’s 1847 NY edition in French was set from a manuscript sent to them by Dumas, and if this proves to be true (or is to be surmised as true), then this Williams edition may be a translation of it, carrying the tale through to the chapter titled “The Presentation and the Banquet” which (with the onset of the French civil war) is followed by a “Conclusion” wherein Dumas apologizes, saying;


“Our distracted country calls on us to aid her with all our energies, whether with the pen or by fighting in her ranks for the preservation of public order. We must therefore close our history for the present, promising that as soon as peace shall once more bless our distracted country, to give the reader a sequel to this story under the title of ‘Achievements and Adventures of Raoul de Bragelonne.’”. (Inventory #: 1040)