The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit…
London: Chapman and Hall, 1844. First edition, the issue with the transposed pound sign on the engraved title, which is sometimes considered earlier, but with the second issue fourteen-line errata. Forty engraved plates by Hablot K. Browne, including frontispiece and title vignette. Boards and binding extremities a bit rubbed, plates a little brown at edges, but only occasional foxing and offsetting. Old rubberstamp on half-title, ownership signature dated 1874. A good, sound copy. Contemporary black calf over marbled boards, gilt spine with burgundy morocco label. Octavo. xiv, [2], 624 pp. Item #12294
“The book shows Dickens at his highest power. Whether it has done much to enforce its intended moral, that selfishness is a bad thing, may be doubted. But the humour and the tragic power are undeniable. Pecksniff and Mrs. Gamp at once became recognised types of character, and the American scenes, revealing Dickens’s real impressions, are perhaps the most surprising proof of his unequalled power of seizing characteristics at a glance” (Leslie Stephen in the D.N.B. article).
Eckel, p. 71. Smith, I, #7.
Price: $450.00