[Dickens], Sunday Under Three Heads, 1836, first edition

DICKENS, CHARLES]

Sunday Under Three Heads As It Is; As Sabbath Bills Would Make It; As It Might be Made. By Timothy Sparks. London: Chapman And Hall, 1836

8vo (160 x 105mm.), first edition, three vignettes of heads on title-page, frontispiece, and 2 plates, all wood-engraved after Hablot K. Browne, half-title, original grey printed wrappers, advertisements for Pickwick and The Library of Fiction on lower wrapper, preserved in blue cloth chemise and matching crushed blue morocco slipcase, rebacked, further slight repairs to wrappers

First edition of the young Dickens' pseudonymous political pamphlet defending the right of the poor man to a free Sabbath, in opposition to a proposed law (put forward by Andrew Agnew, 7th Baronet Agnew of Lochnaw) prohibiting all work and all recreation on a Sunday.

REFERENCE:

Eckel p.102; Gimbel B30

PROVENANCE:

Richard Manney, book-label, sale of his library at Sotheby's New York, 11 October 1991, lot 77