Memoirs of a Physician; Joseph Balsamo [Mémoires d'un Médecin]

London: Simms & M'Intyre, 1847. First Edition. Very good. 3 vols. first edition in English, only partially preceded by a fragment, Peirce's failed and sliced-up 1847 printing of the first third. Original light green printed (absinthe) boards, Parlour Library II, X, XVI (Simms & M'Intyre's reprint was in 2 vols.). Spines and edges a little rubbed, vol. II with (what may, or may not, be) slightly later ads, but a very good, entirely complete, and fresh set, with all the mellowness and patina, the play of light and color, the joy of age and genuineness, that makes for an aesthetic merit having little to do with the objective or artistic values with which the books were invested by their makers. So "very good" can be remarkable condition for such frail books, and although this title is the most common of all Dumas' great novels in its first edition translation into English when rebound, it is rare when found in original printed boards in anything approaching this condition. This translation compressed the conclusion into 1 page and then filled out the final 107 pages with Dumas' novel The Two Marguerites, a compression that hints at a conspiracy and not just because it was repeated in every English edition for many years (the reasoning is a subtlety beyond my discernment, but it may be as simple as that the Brits didn't like Dumas' historical inferences).