Dickens, Charles | "Oliver Twist," first edition, extensively extra-illustrated

Dickens, Charles

Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy's Progress. By 'Boz'. London: Richard Bentley, 1838

3 volumes, 12mo. (201 x 122mm). Half-titles, with the list of Cruickshank illustrations in volume 1, etched frontispiece in each volume and 21 plates after George Cruikshank including the ‘Fireside’ plate, extra illustrated with a complete proof set of duplicate Cruikshank plates, the substitute plate in vol. 3 showing the Scene at St Agnes’s Tomb; two sets of 21 etchings by F.W. Pailthorpe, dated 1886, including one of 50 sets of India Proofs and one of 50 hand-coloured sets; 18 hand-coloured character sketches by 'Kyd'; 5 other engraved plates and an autograph note by George Cruikshank loosely inserted; a few plates browned. Red morocco by Zaehnsdorf, top edges and turn-ins gilt, original cloth covers and spines bound in.

[with:] Manuscript volume, 216 written pages, by noted bibliographer Richard Herne Shepherd (1842-1895), recording the ‘passages and words afterwards altered or omitted’ in later editions of the novel. Shepherd published a bibliography of Dickens in 1880. Uniformly bound by Zaehnsdorf.

First edition, extensively extra-illustrated, of this beloved Dickens novel. Each title page attributes authorship to 'Boz,' and the set features the canceled 'Fireside' plate in Volume 3, along with 90 additional illustrations.

This was published by Richard Bentley in three volumes between 1837 and 1838. Dickens’s second novel, it was the first to be issued under his name rather than his pseudonym, "Boz." Oliver Twist marked a significant departure from Dickens's earlier, more humorous works, offering a darker exploration of poverty, crime, and social injustice in Victorian England.

REFERENCES:

Eckel 59; Gimbel/Podeschi A27; Smith I, 4; Sadleir 696; Wolff 1808

PROVENANCE:

Christie's London, 11 July 2018, lot 336