Victor Hugo / Achille Devéria, Louis Boulanger, Édouard Riou, Émile Bayard, Daniel Vierge, Georges - Oeuvres complètes de Victor Hugo - 1902-1906

HUGO (Victor). Complete works. New illustrated edition. Paris, Société d'éditions littéraires et artistiques, Librairie Paul Ollendorff, undated [circa 1902-1906]. 19 volumes, large octavo, text in two columns, half calf brown binding, spine fully ornamented with gilt compartments and arabesque décor, numbering and content of each volume gilt on the back, green cloth boards (period binding). Complete series.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) died in 1885, leaving a substantial amount of unpublished material. Their posthumous publication, overseen by his executors, extended over almost twenty years. Paul Ollendorff (1851-1920), the designated editor of these texts, integrated them into this popular illustrated edition, thus offering a truly complete Hugo. The inclusion of Dernière gerbe, published in 1902, fixes the earliest possible date of the series.

Volumes are arranged by genre. Poetry occupies volumes I to III: Odes and Ballads, The Orientales, The Leaves of Autumn, The Songs of Twilight, The Voices Within, The Rays and the Shadows, The Contemplations, The Songs of the Streets and of the Woods; The Legend of the Ages, God, The End of Satan, The Pope, The Supreme Pity, Religions and Religion, The Ass, The Four Winds of the Spirit; The Chastisements, The Fatal Years, The Terrible Year, The Art of Being a Grandfather, The Whole Lyre, Dernière gerbe. Drama occupies volumes IV and V. The novels follow: Han d’Islande, Bug-Jargal, The Last Day of a Condemned Man and Claude Gueux (VI), Notre-Dame de Paris (VII), Les Misérables (VIII to X). Volumes XI to XIX bring together exile novels, historical, philosophical and political writings (Acts and Words, including Before the Exile, 1841-1851), travels and posthumous works.

Illustration is plentiful: wood engravings in and out of text after Achille Devéria (1800-1857), Louis Boulanger (1806-1867), Édouard Riou (1833-1900), Émile Bayard (1837-1891), Daniel Vierge (1851-1904), Georges Rochegrosse (1859-1938), Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921) and Hugo himself (editors rarely incorporated Hugo’s illustrations). Portraits of the author at various ages appear at the front of the volumes.

Good overall condition, industrial paper uniformly browned with scattered foxing and a fairly pronounced old-paper odor, some corners bumped, superficial white specks (mould?) on the boards, rare rindings and other minor defects.

Given the very heavy weight of the series (over 30 kg), delivery may be in relay and in two parcels.