Madame Bovary

The French original is the true first — the census claim is correct. The novel was serialised in the Revue de Paris from 1 October to 15 December 1856, ahead of the Lévy book, but the serial is a periodical appearance and does not displace the 1857 two-volume first edition. The first edition in English is Eleanor Marx-Aveling's translation, Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners (London: Vizetelly & Co., 1886) — the first English translation to appear and the only one for many years; it is collected in its own right.