39 DICKENS, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. London: Chapman and Hall, 1844 bound with the front wrappers from the parts First edition, bound from the original monthly parts with all but one of the 19 original front wrappers bound in, wanting Part 10. The serial ran from December 1842 to July 1844. Dickens’s biographer places Martin Chuzzlewit as marking “a great change in Dickens’s conception of moral characteristics . . . For the first time Dickens begins to explore the contradictions and difficulties of the contemporary human world; these are no longer figures defined by a single characteristic or animated by the wilful principle of a ‘humour’, but ones who are seen to change with the changing world, to live and grow” (Ackroyd, p. 392). Dickens wrote to a contemporary that “I think Chuzzlewit is a hundred points immeasurably the best of my stories” (cited in Berard, p. 3). Octavo (216 × 136 mm). Near-contemporary half vellum, smooth spine divided in compartments with a gilt Greek key roll, dark red morocco labels in two compartments, small gilt centre tools in others, single gilt fillet trimming sides and corners, marbled sides and endpapers, top edge gilt. With 18 (of 19) front wrappers from the original parts bound-in at rear. Engraved frontispiece and vignette title page (£ sign transposed, no priority), 38 plates, by H. K. Browne (“Phiz”). Bound with half-title. Bookplate of Virginia bibliophile and historian Christopher Clark Geest (b. 1936) on front pastedown and of New York advertising executive Morton Freund (1898–1990) and his wife Elizabeth R. Freund (1894– 1989) on front free endpaper verso. No. 13 wrapper cropped at foot with loss to date. Vellum a little soiled, rubbing at lower edges, small paper restoration to upper margin of p. 455, contents slightly foxed, faint splash mark at upper margin of a few plates, not affecting illustrations. A very good copy, attractively bound. ¶ Smith I.7. Peter Ackroyd, Dickens , 1990; Jane Helen Berard, Dickens and Landscape Discourse , 2007. £1,250 [157369] 40 DICKENS, Charles. Bleak House. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1853 First edition, handsomely bound from the original monthly parts as first published between March 1852 and September 1853.
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“The satire of Bleak House focuses on the obfuscations and delays of the court of chancery which result in widespread human misery and suffering, but the novel’s complicated plot and centripetal organization bring into the picture a great cross- section of contemporary English society . . . Writing at the height of his powers, Dickens adopts a virtuoso form of double narration, and the novel has since the middle of the twentieth century been widely acclaimed as his greatest work” ( ODNB ). Of note is the inclusion of ten dark plates, a new mode of illustration particularly fitting to the novel: “As Dickens’s vision of society darkened, Browne adjusted his techniques, pioneering in the use of ‘dark plates’, where the plate was machine-ruled in parallel grooves which printed an almost uniform tone either before or after the figures and background were hand drawn. These brooding, atmospheric
designs harmonized with the gloomy, foggy world of Bleak House and Little Dorrit ” (Schlicke, p. 59). Octavo (212 × 133 mm). Contemporary red full morocco for Willis & Sotherans, spine with raised bands, elaborate gilt decoration in compartments, red morocco label, covers triple gilt ruled and framed with a gilt dentelle border, floral gilt tooling to board edges and turn-ins, yellow coated endpapers, gilt edges. Etched frontispiece, vignette title page, and 38 plates (including the 10 “dark” plates) by “Phiz” (H. K. Browne). With 19th-century armorial bookplate of Wickham Flower (1835–1904), solicitor and collector of antiquities, and bookseller ticket of Willis & Sotheran, both to front pastedown. Binding bright and firm, extremities a little rubbed, some browning to plates as usual, a few marginal stains, not affecting text, otherwise internally clean. An excellent copy, presenting attractively in the binding. ¶ Eckel, p. 79; Kremers, pp. 100–3; Smith I, 10. Paul Schlicke, ed., The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens , 2001. £1,250 [156807]
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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