Les Deux Diane [The Two Dianas]

Brussels: Méline, 1847. First Edition. Half calf. Very good. 10 vols. 1st edition (?), maybe preceded by Cadot's Paris edition (maybe not), and parallel to the Brussels editions of Lebégue's and Muquardt. The timing is close and Munro only addresses his guess towards the first volume published, not the last. He lists Lebégue's edition before Méline's based on the former having 3 vols. (of the 10) dated 1846, versus Méline's, which has 2 vols. so dated. But digging a little deeper than the superficial, his chronology is reversible. The 3 Lebégue volumes dated 1846, have 354 total pages in 24mo. whereas the 2 Méline volsumes dated 1846 have 464 total pages in 16mo. so more of the novel's text is dated 1846 in Méline's edition compared to Lebégue's (the same relationship also applies to the edition of Muquardt). Further, Munro notes 2 states of Méline's imprint, but the books are without textual differences, and there is no priority between them. Half calf, uncut, very good condition, and with some of the (grubby) original wrappers preserved. I had the doubts of a purest (always dangerous) about whether to sell this title without some warning attached to the authorship. It is found in many of the major sets of Dumas' collected novels that include only his most popular books, and attempt to be concise about which titles they contain, but it is not entirely his work. It is set very early on the chronological line (1521­-1574) of Dumas' most famous novels, and Dumas did wrangle the characters and devise the plotline, but he was so busy with 5 simultaneous serializations that he turned over more than the usual amount of the writing to another, in this case Paul Meurice. Nonetheless, the novel remains popular, and in print, despite it lacking the requisite full compliment of Dumas' style and energy.