Dickens, The Life of Our Lord, 1934, 2 copies

DICKENS, CHARLES

Two copies of The Life Of Our Lord, comprising:

The Life of Our Lord. London: Associated Newspapers Ltd., 1939, 4to (235 x 170mm.), FIRST ENGLISH "DELUXE EDITION", facsimile illustrations and other plates, original blue lambskin gilt, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers, DUST-JACKET, publisher’s 'request form' loosely inserted

[together with:]

another copy, trade edition, within SEALED MAILING CARTON

"The History of Jesus Christ" was written by Dickens for his children between 1846 and 1849 and the author would claim – in 1861 – that the book was "an inseparable part of their earliest remembrances" (see Letters, Vol IX, Oxford, 1997, p. 557). It was not intended for publication and the original manuscript was left to Georgina Hogarth, and then to Sir Henry Fielding Dickens (the author’s last surviving son). Sir Henry’s will allowed publication "if the majority of his family were in favour". It was eventually published in serial form in March 1934 before volume publication.

Smith notes a number of differences between the leather and cloth issues. The cloth issue does not include facsimile reproductions of pages of Dickens's manuscript.

REFERENCE:

Smith II: 12