We are introduced to him [Clovis Dardentor] on the voyage from the Mediterranean port of Cette to Oran in Algiers, where he is travelling with the Desirandelles -- Monsieur, who resembles a tobacco-jar in shape; Madame, thin, angular, narrow-minded, and devoted to her son; and Agathocle Desirandelle, a speechless booby who does nothing but eat, and has not the grace to be seasick even. Two young Parisians going to enlist in the Chasseurs d'Afrique have a large share in the narrative... it would be better to be adopted by the millionaire Dardentor than to enlist... [from a contemporary review, cited in T&M]

Most of Verne's first British editions are handsomely-bound, but CLOVIS DARDENTOR is certainly one of the loveliest. The front cover scene shows Dardentor rescuing one of the would-be Chasseurs from a railroad car that is engulfed in flames, and on the spine the hapless Agathocle is getting thrown from a horse. There are a few copies known to be bound in beveled boards with all edges gilt; most are like this one, with the same binding but without either of those features (neither binding state is believed to have preceded the other; they were simply offered by the publisher as differently priced options). In either binding this is quite an uncommon title, and because the pigments used on the binding are notoriously prone to flake off, fine copies seem truly rare. This is a very good copy, with the spine slightly dusty and with minor erosion of the front cover pigment near the fore-edge. Taves & Michaluk V045; Myers 13.