HUGO, Victor. *La Légende des Siècles*. First Series. Histor - Lot 204

HUGO, Victor. *La Légende des Siècles*. First Series. History—*Les Petites Epopées*. The first edition of the first series of Victor Hugo’s greatest poetic epic. Paris, Michel Lévy Frères - Hetzel et Cie, 1859. 2 tomes in 2 paperback volumes, in-8. XVII - 270 pp. and 270 pp. - 1 blank folio at the end. Some soiling; spines cracked with very neat repairs at one joint each; a few very slight tears or small paper losses at the margins of the covers; foxing. First edition of this poetic masterpiece dedicated to France. This collection, intended to depict the destiny of humanity in the face of the passage of centuries, consists of three series spanning twenty-four years (1859, 1877, and 1883). This first series, published by Michel Levy and Hetzel, spans from the birth of Eve to the blare of the trumpets of Judgment Day, covering the early centuries of our era. Victor Hugo speaks of it with confidence in his preface: “What will this work be? To express humanity in a kind of cyclical work; to depict it successively and simultaneously in all its aspects [...] to reveal, in a sort of mirror—both dark and clear [...]—this great figure, at once singular and manifold, somber and radiant, fateful and sacred: Man; that is the thought, the ambition, if you will, from which *The Legend of the Centuries* sprang” (pp. VIII and IX). Good copies, rare paperback editions. Sources: - Vicaire, IV, 324 - Claude Rétat. Hugo, “La Légende des siècles” (1859). Sedes, 238 pp., 2001