Wandering Jew - 5 volume set

Found these in my inlaws basement and was wondering anyone could shed any light on them for me. Thanks in advance.




I can't find a published date on any of them. A penciled in name and date on the first volume shows May 22, 96 (I am assuming 1896)

 

and here I was looking for a plant !

 

abebooks.com has copies. You can look here to start. Do keep in mind these are asking prices and don't reflect demand.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Se...dded=all&sortby=17&sts=t&tn=the wandering jew

Debora

 

Thank you

 

If you don't find a comparable, let me know and I'll search further.

Debora

 

Eugène Sue was the first writer that expressly wrote adventure and crime stories for newspapers; they were published weekly. contrary to what the English title might allude to, it has no Anti-Semitic direction, but is staunchly Anti-Jesuit because those tried to destroy the remnants of the Revolution - human rights etc. - and also against religious intolerance in general. the better for me was Les Mystères de Paris, which is often looked upon as the first French crime story (comparable to some of Poe's).

 

Interesting. I'd not heard of Sue.

Debora

 

Do any of the volumes end mid-sentence? That was sometimes done with subscription series to encourage the purchase of the next volume.

 

I will have to check.

 

In books, Collier, later P. F. Collier & Son, was primarily a publisher of inexpensive reprints, of greater or lesser quality. These look to be on the better end of their spectrum. 1896 is certainly plausible for the date. These will be of interest to collectors of Doré more than Sue, who has little name recognition in the English-speaking world.

 

sounds reasonable. who would have known Gavarni ? another unknown French.

 

I did NOT know Gavarni, another brilliant French illustrator all but unknown in the English-speaking world. It is interesting how some artists 'cross over', like Doré, and others do not.

 

problem is that these stories were originally "work in progress"; Sue changed the direction of the plot when the public readers didn't like it. he even started to visit "unhealthy" places for research.
and I've never seen an original print of the weeklies, so I don't know who draw the sketches there - if there were any at all.