Jules Verne - La Jangada - 1923

VERNE, JULES. — CARTONNAGE HETZEL « À L'ÉLÉPHANT ».
La Jangada. Huit cents lieues sur l'Amazone. Paris: Librairie Hachette (Ancienne Maison Hetzel), 1923.

Grand in-8°. Red publisher's percaline, decor « à l'Éléphant » in gold and black, gilded edges.
Late, sought-after edition of Jules Verne's famous travel and cryptography novel about the Amazon River, published in the mythical Hetzel binding « à l'Éléphant » originally created by the Hetzel house and reprinted by Hachette in the 1920s.

The work is followed by the authentic travel narrative written by Paul Verne (Jules Verne's brother), recounting their sea cruise aboard the yacht Saint-Michel.

The so-called « à l'Éléphant » plate features among the most spectacular décors in the Voyages Extraordinaires collection. It fuses exotic imagery (the elephant's head, the tropical landscape under the moon) with the 19th-century taste for scientific conquest (camera, telescope, diving apparatus, compass and marine anchor).

Superb copy, condition close to mint. Extremely vivid red percaline with no sunning, gildings and blacks on the upper plate with a perfect mirror-bright shine, corners very sharply cut. Interior clean on sturdy paper well preserved, a very small stain in the lower margin of the title page without affecting the text.

When the Hetzel house was bought by Hachette in 1914, the new publisher kept the precious steel engraving plates to continue printing the red bindings through the mid-1920s.

The mention « Librairie Hachette - 1923 » at the bottom of the title confirms that this is one of the very last listed printings before the definitive abandonment of the large gold bindings in favor of soft bindings!