Dickens, Charles | Oliver Twist, in the original monthly parts

Property from the Workman Collection

Dickens, Charles

The Adventures of Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress. London: Chapman and Hall, January-October, 1846

10 parts, 8vo (220 x 138 mm). 24 etched plates by George Cruikshank, retouched by J. Findlay; some light browning to and spotting to plates, but otherwise uncommonly clean internally. Original blue-green pictorial wrappers after Cruikshank; spines expertly renewed apparently at an early stage, with advertisements removed. Housed in custom clamshell case and folding chemise. 

First edition, in original monthly parts. 

“Please, sir, I want some more.”

As noted by Hatton and Cleaver, "complete sets of the ten parts can, without exaggeration, be described as of the utmost rarity... The very scarcity alone, of the book in parts, gives added zest to the tracking down of copies, but many would-be owners are doomed to disappointment in their efforts to effect a capture, in face of the very limited supply available." Eckel notes: "Many collectors prize this issue very highly and consequently it is the more valuable of the Oliver Twists."

Oliver Twist was first serialized in Bentley's Miscellany between February 1837 and April 1839, and first appeared in book form in November 1838. Astonishingly, Pickwick was only half completed when Dickens began the tale, and he started Nicholas Nickleby before it was finished.

REFERENCE:

Eckel 62-63; Gimbel A38; Hatton and Cleaver 215-224