Virtually Unknown and One of the Earliest Editions of "The Count of Monte Cristo" Dumas. Le Comte de Monte-Cristo . Publie par le Siecle. Paris: Bureaux du Journal Le Siecle, [1845]-1846. One of the earliest editions of this book. Large quarto (11 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches; 301 x 213 mm). [4], 408 pp. Printed in double columns.The novel first appeared serially in the Parisian newspaper Le Journal des debats, from 28 August 1844 to 15 January 1846, and in fact met with tremendous success from the very first. The first book edition (a set of eighteen octavo volumes that Reed calls the "original edition") was published subsequently in Paris by Petion, and bears imprint dates 1845 to 1846. This rare, serial edition, published by another periodical, Le Siecle, between 28 September 1845 and 1 February 1846, precedes the second edition of Le Comte de Monte Cristo, a twelve-volume set also published by Petion in 1846. The Siecle serial is likely to have been published at the same time as or earlier than the first Belgian edition (Brusells, Lebegue et Sacre Fils), a fifteen-volume set with an 1845-1846 imprint; although the title-page bears the correct spelling of Cristo (without the "h"), the running title at the tops of the pages reads Monte-Christo. Since Dumas corrected this titular misprint before the publication of the second edition, this discrepancy between the running title and title-page text places the publication of this edition firmly between the first and second editions. Of this edition Reed writes, "Another edition was given as a bonus to subscribers by "Le Siecle," large 4to. Of two columns"; Reed's never having examined a copy speaks to its scarcity. Indeed, all of the earliest editions of The Count of Monte Cristo are rare, but this extraordinary book.
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