Charles Dickens | Little Dorrit, 1855-1857, first edition in parts

Dickens, Charles

Little Dorrit. London: Bradbury and Evans, December 1855-June 1857

FIRST EDITION IN THE ORIGINAL 19/20 PARTS, 8vo (220 x 142mm.), etched frontispiece, pictorial title-page and 38 plates by Hablot K. Browne "Phiz" including EIGHT 'DARK' PLATES, FIRST ISSUE with "Rigaud" for "Blandois" in part 15 pp. 469, 470, 472 and 473 and correction slip in part 16, all advertisements at front and back and slips present as called for by Hatton and Cleaver, including an additional copy of 4pp Norton's Chamomile Pills in Part 12, preliminary leaves at end part 19/20, original blue pictorial wrappers, cloth chemise and dark green morocco gilt collector's slipcase, occasional slight spotting, wrappers occasioanl light discolouration and fraying at edges, backstrips generally lightly chipped or neatly restored, OTHERWISE A FINE SET   

It is rare to find Little Dorrit in the original parts in such good condition and with all the advertisements and slips present. Little Dorrit is the third in Dickens' "condition-of-England" novels, following on from Bleak House, centering on a filthy and corrupted London. Sales for this novel were even better than for Bleak House, thus making Dickens more money from the serial sales than any of his other novels.

LITERATURE:

Eckel pp. 82-85, Hatton and Cleaver pp. 305-330

PROVENANCE:

Alain de Suzannet, booklabel on cloth chemise, his sale Sotheby's 22 November 1971, lot 107