New York: Carleton, Publisher, 1862. In five volumes. First American edition and first edition in English. 8vo. Translated from the French by Charles E. Wilbour. Publisher's purple cloth-covered boards, decorated in blind and in gilt, boards and spines unevenly faded; scattered light rubbing and wear to boards and extremities; spine ends variously, but generally, lightly worn; all edges trimmed; scattered foxing to text; wear in top corner of rear paste-down of first volume; binder's ticket at bottom of each rear paste-down, except for the third volume (George W. Alexander, New York); in fall-down-back box.

A handsome set of the first American edition and first edition in English of Victor Hugo's classic, published in the same year as the first French edition.

Charles E. Wilbour began his translation of Les Miserables shortly before the book was published in France. His quick work allowed it to appear in the United States within a few months of the French release, and the fierce advertising campaign Wilbour waged on the book's behalf resulted in it becoming one of the most popular bestsellers of the nineteenth century--behind only Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in pre-Civil War American book sales.