Charles DICKENS

Illustrated edition of the first series which had previously appeared in 1836. Rare. Very fine printing on tinted laid paper, of great modernity when compared to French printings of the same period. Third edition statement on title page.

Preface to the first and second edition. 2 frontispieces and 7 plates on heavy laid paper in each volume by George Cruikshank. John Ruskin declared that after Rembrandt, no one had engraved scenes so fine. Although it is noted in manuscript on the endpaper "First illustrated edition", this is doubtless an error since the first series in first edition and the second were equally illustrated by Cruikshank. 

Late 19th-century...

First edition in book form, published in London by Bradbury & Evans in November 1850, shortly after the completion of the 19 monthly parts begun in May 1849. Illustrated with 40 compositions by Hablot Knight Browne, known as Phiz: frontispiece, engraved title and 38 full-page plates.

Contemporary English half dark green shagreen with corners. Spine with flat false bands, decorated with gilt rolls across the bands and gilt fillets. Some rubbing. Internally fresh and clean. As is frequently encountered in this edition, the plates show moderate browning and foxing, chiefly around the edges. A faint dampstain to the plate Changes...

First edition in book form of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, published in London by Chapman and Hall in 1837, following its appearance in monthly parts beginning in March 1836. Dickens’s first novel, the work is illustrated with forty-three engraved plates, including a frontispiece and engraved title, by Robert Seymour, Robert William Buss, and Hablot Knight Browne, known as Phiz. The printed title is dated MDCCCXXXVII.

Contemporary full brown calf, spine with false raised bands, decorated with broad gilt fillets, longitudinal gilt tools over the bands, and blind wave tooling; red calf...

First French edition, translated by William Hugues, under the direction of P. Lorrain.

Contemporary half red shagreen binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with 3 fleurons. Gilt titles and volume labels. Light traces of rubbing. Very fresh set, free from foxing except for some pale browning on the first text page of volume 1.
A work of great darkness, Little Dorrit is the second of Dickens's three political and social novels. It is a denunciation of Victorian society obsessed with wealth and power. G. B. Shaw would judge the novel "More seditious than Karl Marx's Capital". The novel begins in Marseille. One of Dickens's great works.

First edition, rare, first issue with the 8 lines of errata on one leaf. The illustration, executed according to the author's very precise instructions, comprises a frontispiece, an engraved title with a vignette and 38 plates by Hablot Knight Browne, including one in mezzotint: On the dark road. Text on tinted laid paper.

Contemporary half red shagreen binding. Raised bands spine, decorated. Author and title in gilt. Top edge gilt. Margins of the frontispiece, engraved title and engravings browned, as is usually the case in English editions of Dickens. Clean text, free from foxing. Light rubbing. Handsome copy.
A novel written in a distinctly darker vein...