130 - VERNE (Jules). CAPTAIN GRANT’S CHILDREN. A Voyage Around the World. Paris, J. Hetzel, Bibliothèque d’éducation et de récréation, [circa 1867–1868]. Three parts in 3 in-12 volumes in tan half-basane, smooth spine divided by gilt fillets and decorated with embossed lozenges and a wide gilt scroll at the foot, title and volume number labels in black calfskin, marbled paper covers (contemporary binding). Slight signs of rubbing on the bindings, 2 small pinholes at the bottom of a page edge, small brown ink stains not affecting the text in the upper right corner of the first two text leaves of Volume 2, small corner loss on the second endpaper of Volume 2. FIRST EDITION, very rare, of one of the iconic titles in Jules Verne’s body of work. It is the only work in his entire bibliography to have been published from the outset in three separate volumes: May 6 and July 27, 1867, for the first two parts, and January 28, 1868, for the third and final part. The title pages are adorned with circular maps depicting the three stages of the journey: South America, Australia, and the Pacific Ocean. It was the publisher Hetzel himself who divided the original 1867–1868 publication according to the geographical divisions of the narrative. The title page of the third part bears a fictitious notation reading “Second Edition.” A RARE COPY FEATURING AN AUTOGRAPH DEDICATION BY JULES VERNE, in red ink, in the first volume: “To the young André Labiche / Jules Verne.” André-Marin LABICHE (1856–1897) was the son of Adèle and the playwright Eugène Labiche. A doctor of law, he pursued a career at the Council of State. He was nearly twelve years old when, in 1868, the final part of the novel that Jules Verne had given him was published. A CHARMING COPY, preserved in its uniform, strictly period binding, with the book block virtually free of foxing. ¶ Gondolo della Riva, “Bibliographie analytique,” Vol. I, No. 12, B1-3, pp. 20–21: collation strictly identical, except for Volume 2, which was bound without the publisher’s 4-page catalog—Bottin, 532—Ader, November 29, 2016, No. 91, regarding a letter from Jules Verne to Eugène Labiche dated February 5, 1868, in which he announces that in a few days he will bring him “the latest volume of *Captain Grant*. “It goes without saying that this is intended primarily for Mr. André Labiche, much more so than for Mr. Eugène Labiche…”—Ader, November 29, 2016, no. 145, regarding this copy.