Dickens, Charles

8vo (198 x 123mm.), 2 volumes, FIRST EDITION, half-titles, first state with second Contents page in volume 1 misnumbered xvi and 6pp. of advertisements at the end of volume 2, original greyish-brown vertically-ribbed cloth with floral frame in blind on covers (variant binding), pale yellow endpapers, hinges of volume 1 repaired, spines very slightly faded, minor bumping to corners

Smith I:3

Smith I:3

Dickens' preface for American Notes was suppressed because John Forster and other friends advised him that it might be misunderstood in America. However, it had already been printed and when deleted from the preliminaries the original pagination was not altered -- as here, in the first state, with x wrongly numbered xvi. The oversight was subsequently detected and the prelims reprinted with the correct pagination (second state). The preface was not published during the novelist's lifetime, only appearing first in Forster's biography (1872-4).