Before She Met Me (Wolters-Noordhoff, 1997)


Notes on this edition: Before She Met Me. Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff, 1997. Pp. 160. 20 x 12 cm. ISBN: 9001549888. The back cover lists the ISBN as 9001549861.

Wolters-Noordhoff is a publisher from the Netherlands, but this is not a translation. Rather, the novel was published for English language readers in the Netherlands and features English text throughout.

Also includes two essays at the end of the novel written by Ton Heuvelmans: “About the Author and His Work” (pp. 156-158) and “About the Book” (pp. 158-160).

Als sie mich noch nicht kannte | Before She Met Me (Haffmans Verlag, 1988; German)


Notes on this edition: Als sie mich noch nicht kannte | Before She Met Me. Zürich: Haffmans Verlag, 1988. Pp. 247 [248]. 18.4 x 11.1 cm. Translated by Michael Walter. (German).

The dust jacket of the German translation of Barnes’s second novel Before She Met Me features an illustration by Volker Kriegel. Also in 1988, Bloomsbury published Kriegel’s book The Truth about Dogs, a collection of Kriegel’s humorous drawings of dogs. Julian Barnes wrote an introduction for the book.

Before She Met Me Uncorrected Proof (Jonathan Cape, 1982)


Notes on this edition: Uncorrected Proof of Julian Barnes’s second literary novel Before She Met Me bound in red wraps with black lettering. Scheduled publication date of 15th April 1982. (19.5 x 14.3 cm).

Before She Met Me (Jonathan Cape, 1991)


Notes on this edition: In 1991, Jonathan Cape reissued Julian Barnes’s novel Before She Met Me in hardback format. The first edition hardback was originally published in 1982, and because Cape did not make changes to the reissued book outside of small changes to the title page, copyright page, and dust jacket, the reissue may be classified technically as as a first edition, second printing.

Before She Met Me (McGraw-Hill, 1986)


Notes about this Edition: Julian Barnes’s second literary novel was not published in the U.S. until 1986, making the McGraw-Hill paperback the first American edition. Following the critical success of Julian Barnes’s novel Flaubert’s Parrot, McGraw-Hill published a series of paperbacks to promote his backlist. After releasing Flaubert’s Parrot in paperback (1985), McGraw-Hill issued Barnes’s second novel Before She Met Me (1986), followed by Metroland (1987).

Descriptive Bibliography: First American edition – New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986. $4.95.

Title Page: Julian Barnes | Before She Met Me | McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY | New York St. Louis San Francisco Bogotá Guatamala | Hamburg Lisbon Madrid Mexico Montreal Panama | Paris San Juan São Paulo Tokyo

Copyright Page: Copyright © 1982 by Julian Barnes | All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as | permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may | be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a | data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the | publisher. | First McGraw-Hill Paperback edition, 1986 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A G R A G R 8 7 6 | ISBN 0-07-003747-7 | LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA | Barnes, Julian. | Before she met me. | I. Title | PR6052.A6657B4 1986 823’.914 86-10627 | ISBN 0-07-003747-7 (pbk.)

Collation: 17.1 x 10.5 cm. Pp. [1-8] 9-174 [175-176]. [1]: ‘Before She Met Me | Julian Barnes was born in Leicester in 1946 and was educated | in London and Oxford. He was deputy literary editor of the | Sunday Times and is currently television critic of the Observer.’. [2]: blank. [3]: title page. [4]: copyright page. [5]: epigraph. [6]: ‘To Pat’. [7]: [contents]. [8]: blank. 9-174: text. [175]: blank. [176]: ‘Catalog | If you are interested in a list of fine Paperback | books, covering a wide range of subjects | and interests, send your name and address, | requesting your free catalog, to: | McGraw-Hill Paperbacks | 1221 Avenue of Americas | New York, N.Y. 10020’.

General description: Binding 17.1 x 10.5 cm. Paperbound in black. Lettered in white (title) and lavendar (author). No author photograph. No hardback edition was published in the U.S., which makes this paperback release the first true American edition.

Before She Met Me (Jonathan Cape, 1982)


Notes on this edition: Jonathan Cape published Julian Barnes’s second literary novel in 1982. The first edition originally sold for £6.50, but later first edition copies were price clipped and increased (e.g. “J. Cape” price tag of £9.95).

Descriptive Bibliography:

First edition – London: Jonathan Cape, 1982. £6.50. Print run: 3000.

Title Page: BEFORE SHE MET ME | Julian Barnes | [Jonathan Cape device] | JONATHAN CAPE | THIRTY BEDFORD SQUARE LONDON

Copyright Page: First published 1982 | Copyright © 1982 by Julian Barnes | Jonathan Cape Ltd, 30 Bedford Square, London WC1 | British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data | Barnes, Julian | Before she met me. | I. Title | 823’.914 [F] PR6052.A6657 | ISBN 0-224-01985-6 | Typeset by Gloucester Typesetting Services | Printed in Great Britain by | St Edmundsbury Press, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Collation: 19.8 x 12.7 cm. Pp. [i-iv] [1-10] 11-183 [184-188]. [i]: pasted to board. [ii-iv]: blank. [1]: ‘BEFORE SHE MET ME’. [2]: ‘by the same author | METROLAND’. [3]: title page. [4]: copyright page. [5]: ‘To Pat’. [6]: blank. [7]: epigraph. [8]: blank [9]: [contents]. [10]: blank. 11-183: text. [184-187]: blank. [188]: pasted to board.

General description: Binding 20.5 x 13.8 cm. Black boards, gold blocked on spine. No endpapers (outer leaves pasted down). Black dust jacket lettered in red (title) and white (author), with a photograph of the author by Jerry Bauer on back flap.

До того, как она встретила меня | Before She Met Me (ACT, 2005; Russian)


Notes about this edition: Julian Barnes.  До того, как она встретила меня (Do togo, kak ona vstretila menja) | Before She Met Me. Москва: АСТ: Транзиткнига, 2005. Pp. 252 [253] + [3]. 20.6 x 13.6 cm. Translated by И. Гуровой [I. Gurova]. ISBN: 5170289189. (Russian).