MONSIEUR LECOQ. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900. Octavo, pp. [1-8] [1] 2-366 [367-368: blank], four inserted plates with illustrations by Bayard Jones, original decorated red cloth, front panel stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold and blind. First printing of this edition. First published in 1868. There were many translations into English under various titles, the first by Estes & Lauriat in 1880. A famous roman policier featuring detective M. Lecoq, the basis for a silent film made in 1914. Gaboriau's twelfth book and the fifth novel in which Lecoq appears "is today often considered his best and most readable book. Changing reading habits, plus indifferent translations, have left the pioneer French mystery writer all but unread today, but he deserves a place in any survey of classic detective fiction." - Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights: The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, pp. 279-80. Many consider Gaboriau and Poe to be the founders of the detective fiction genre. See Glover and Greene, Victorian Detective Fiction 197. Hubin (1994), p. 311. slight spine lean, faint spotting to spine panel, early private owner's name and address rubber-stamped on the front free endpaper, still a very good copy. (#159748).
Price: $75.00
No statement of printing.