CHARLES DICKENS - A CHRISTMAS CAROL - FIRST EDITION XMAS BOOKS - 1843 - 46 - VERY RARE
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:497475 | Author: Charles Dickens |
| Special Attributes: 1st Edition |
For sale is an exceptionally rare and important SECOND STATE of the First Edition of arguably the finest work of fiction of the C19th: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. Published by Chapman and Hall, 186 Strand, London, 1843. 166p.p., plus the publisher's double-sided advertisement leaf. This is Second State, with 'Stave One’ to the first text page.A delightfully unsophisticated volume, it is bound in the publisher’s original salmon-red cloth, with gilt decoration to the spine... and upper board. Stamping in blind to both boards. All page edges gilt. Original yellow-coated endpapers.This wonderful little volume has: "Four hand colored steel-engraved plates by John Leech";"Four black and white wood-engraved illustrations by W.J. Linton"; "The title page in printed in blue and red" "dated 1843 on title page".Externally it remains in VERY FINE order; the cloth exceptionally bright and the hinges firm. Internally it couldn’t be cleaner; it is the best example we have handled. The gutters very firm.Together with this rare and fine volume we here have the four other Christmas titles by Charles Dickens, thus forming a complete set. They collate as follows:The Chimes: First Edition, Second State.The Cricket on the Hearth: First Edition, Second State.The Haunted Man: First Edition, First State. This copy is inscribed to the title page by Angela Burdett-Coutts. To the vignette title is an inscription by her, to a Mrs King. Further information regarding Mrs King (a close friend of Coutts), can be found via the following link: https://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/exhibits/bc-archives-time-machine/galler06/frames/church3.htmThe Battle of Life: First Edition, Fourth State.As one can see from the images, the condition is largely most pleasing, and the cloth and decoration remains bright and bold. The spine to The Battle of Life is ‘sunned’, but this doesn’t detract from its handsome appeal.Dickens’ friend, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, became interested in the Ragged Schools, a system of religiously-inspired schools for the poorest children in Britain. Bourdett-Coutts had been asked donate to them, and she requested that Dickens visit the school at Saffron Hill and report back to her. The author, having experienced poverty and child labour himself, was deeply concerned with its elimination, and believed that education was an important way to achieve this. But he was shocked by what he saw at Saffron Hill. “I have seldom seen”, he wrote to Bourdett-Coutts, “in all the strange and dreadful things I have seen in London and elsewhere, anything so shocking as the dire neglect of soul and body exhibited in these children” (Mackenzie, Dickens, pp. 143-44).That year the Saffron Hill children stayed in Dickens’ mind, and he briefly considered writing a journalistic piece on their plight. Then in October, while visiting a workingmen’s educational institute in Manchester, he suddenly thought of a way to address in fiction his concerns about poverty & greed, and A Christmas Carol was born. Once back in London, Dickens began writing “at a white heat” (ODNB), telling his friend Cornelius Felton that while composing he “wept and laughed and wept again, and excited himself in a most extraordinary manner… and thinking whereof he walked about the black streets of London, fifteen and twenty miles many a night when all the sober folks had gone to bed” (Letters of Charles Dickens, Macmillan & Co., 1893, pp. 101-02).Overall, this is an opportunity to own a complete set and a cornerstone of English literature, and one not to be missed. Unsophisticated, exceedingly rare, and with remarkable provenance, and in such pleasing condition, this set comes very, very highly recommended indeed.Should you have any questions relating to this item, please do not hesitate to contact us. Further images are also available upon request.
Our items are packaged extremely securely and sent via tracked and insured Royal Mail Airsure overseas, and tracked and insured Royal Mail Special Delivery within the UK. We do not profit financially from the postage of our items, always charging less than the actual cost, covering the difference ourselves. WE WILL HAPPILY COMBINE POSTAGE WHERE POSSIBLE FOR MULTIPLE PURCHASES.
Please do peruse our other listings – we have a whole host of rare and first edition books and related items.
Our once-monthly email alert will keep you apprised of our latest available titles; please do take the time to sign-up, via our eBay shop.
Our items are packaged extremely securely and sent via tracked and insured Royal Mail Airsure overseas, and tracked and insured Royal Mail Special Delivery within the UK. We do not profit financially from the postage of our items, always charging less than the actual cost, covering the difference ourselves. WE WILL HAPPILY COMBINE POSTAGE WHERE POSSIBLE FOR MULTIPLE PURCHASES.
Please do peruse our other listings – we have a whole host of rare and first edition books and related items.
Our once-monthly email alert will keep you apprised of our latest available titles; please do take the time to sign-up, via our eBay shop.
