Dickens, Great Expectations, 1861, first edition, fifth impression

DICKENS, CHARLES

Great Expectations. London: Chapman & Hall, 1861

8vo (197 x 120mm.), 3 volumes, "fifth edition" [first edition, fifth impression] in book form, 32pp. publisher’s catalogue at end of volume III (dated November 1861), original publisher’s violet wavy-grain cloth with floral decoration in blind on covers and spines lettered in gilt, yellowish white endpapers, occasional minor spotting and browning, volumes slightly skewed and slightly rubbed, repairs to spines, hinges of volumes I and III strengthened, upper hinge of volume I splitting, some crudely opened edges

Beyond the "fifth edition" statement on the title pages, there are 22 issue points specific to the fifth impression alone (and eight further points which are present, according to the 1993 Clarendon edition, "in some copies"). All these points, including the further points, are present in this set. These are as follows:

25.25 mere trace of full stop after "it", 74.12 very faint full stop after "laugh", 97.11 faulty end-of-line comma, 149.21 faulty "s" in "earnings", 154.24 end-of-line hyphen missing, 227.26 dot of "i" in "its" missing and 293.13 faint full stop in volume I,

3.24 no full stop visible, 5.10 faulty "an" in "and", 46.25 only one inverted comma, 51.10 end-of-line hyphen missing, 51.11 end-of-line hyphen missing, 86.6 end-of-line hyphen missing, 135.1 inverted comma after "am." missing, 146.4 end-of-line hyphen missing, 175.20 mere trace of comma after "[to-] gether", 185.19 no hyphen, 209.1 faulty end-of-line hyphen, 212.1 faulty comma, 213.25 no hyphen and 249.17 mere speck for end-of-line hyphen in volume II

10.16 "the" damaged in some copies (as here), 10.17 "a" in "at" damaged, 35.17 end-of-line "of" in some copies widely spaced (as here), 42 "C" of "CHAPTER" in some copies faulty (as here), 97.22 faults in "state of the" in some copies (as here), 195.7 "g" in "Jag-" broken in some copies (as here), 258.17 "a" replaced in some copies (as here), 308.1 end-of-line comma missing in some copies (as here) and 344 imprint comma replaced in some copies (as here) in volume III

REFERENCE:

Eckel, pp. 91-93; Smith II:14; Great Expectations (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, Appendix D)

PROVENANCE:

Lt Colonel Harry D. Goldsmith, bookplate in volume I