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Aeneas Press edition Victorian

The Honor of the Name

by Émile Gaboriau 1832–1873

The book, and the century it came out of.

A provincial French town, a duke’s château, a peasant girl the duke’s son loves, a murder on the night of a village fire, and a confession extracted from the wrong man. Gaboriau built the French detective novel out of the police gazettes; this long novel is his most political — the vengeance is a whole life’s work, and the machinery that convicts an innocent man is not corrupt, merely certain of itself. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Michel and Couvelet among them.

On the first Sunday in the month of August, 1815, at ten o’clock precisely—as on every Sunday morning—the sacristan of the parish church at Sairmeuse sounded the three strokes of the bell which warn the faithful that the priest is ascending the steps of the altar to celebrate high mass.
The first sentence of The Honor of the Name
A note on this edition

The Honor of the Name, by Émile Gaboriau, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 480 pages
Reading time
about 10 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785501777996
The plates

60 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Paysage de plaine après l’orage, Georges Michel
Paysage de plaine après l’orage Georges Michel 1820
Evening on the River, Caspar David Friedrich
Evening on the River Caspar David Friedrich 1820
Landschap met drie soldaten, jongen met paard en een gevangene, Frans Willems Swart
Landschap met drie soldaten, jongen met paard en een gevangene Frans Willems Swart 1793
A Housewife Settling Up with her Maid, Georg Karl Urlaub
A Housewife Settling Up with her Maid Georg Karl Urlaub 1798
Landscape with a Church and a Mill, Jens Juel
Landscape with a Church and a Mill Jens Juel 1797
Landscape with Cattle Driver and Shepherd, Jacob van Strij
Landscape with Cattle Driver and Shepherd Jacob van Strij 1807
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of The Honor of the Name as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of The Honor of the Name as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

The Honor of the Name, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Mystery & Crime shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501777996, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of The Honor of the Name?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Émile Gaboriau's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 480 pages, which is roughly about 10 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
The Honor of the Name
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