Twain Mark

1884 · réf. 28115 — Paris: Bibliotheque Novelle De La Jeuesses A Hennuyer Imprimeur-Editeur ca. 1884 1886. Together two volumes. The first editions in French. Both novels feature black and white illustrations by Achille Sirouy. Square 8vos each in the original cream cloth beautifully decorated in colours from scenes out of the stories and lettered in red and black on the upper and lower cover and spine a.e.g. 238; 276 pp. A fine bright pair of these rare books the cream cloth just slightly dusty. RARE. Very lovely copies of the first French editions of both Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. These editions were beautifully illustrated and bound quiet differently from their American counterparts only two copies of Tom Sawyer are noted to have appeared at auction for over 30 years and there are no records at all for Huck Finn. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are considered stepping stones to modern American literature. And in these stories for the first time the hero of the novels were boys. These books are landmarks and Hemingway often offered his opinion that the modern novel would have been impossible without them. With Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and Melville’s Moby Dick they provide us with a view of America transcending its past and beginning its future. Bibliotheque Novelle De La Jeuesses, A Hennuyer, Imprimeur-Editeur hardcover