The Personal History of David Copperfield

First edition, illustrated with 40 hors-texte by H. K. Browne, frontispiece and engraved title included dated 1850. This first volume edition follows closely the serial publication that appeared during 1849/1850. Some first issue points: P. 16 "recal" instead of "recall"; six lines of errata on one leaf; mezzotint engraving facing page 482; chapter XXVII is on p. 282 while it is noted as page 283 in the index; the third i on p. viii is not aligned; p. 132 line 20 "screwed" instead of "screamed". Like all Dickens books illustrated by Phiz (H. K. Browne), a close collaboration presided over this achievement, Phiz having illustrated no fewer than 10 works by the author.
Contemporary dark green half-shagreen binding (English binding) with corners. Spine with false flat raised bands decorated with roulettes on the bands and fillets. Traces of rubbing. Text fresh and clean, the hors-texte engravings as always bearing browning and foxing but moderate, mainly at edges. Pale dampstain on one engraving: Changes at home. Fine copy.
"the most perfect of all the Dickens novels" (Virginia Woolf). A coming-of-age novel narrated by the hero himself, which leads him from childhood to maturity. Tinted with the author's own experience, David Copperfield is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful novels written about childhood. Dickens himself will emphasize in a later preface: "Of all my books, I like this the best."