Charles Dickens, 1838

[DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870)]. Oliver Twist; or The Parish Boy's Progress. London: Richard Bentley, 1838.

First edition, first issue of Dickens’s second novel in which he diverges from the earlier Pickwick by inventing the young protagonist Oliver, and paints “a compelling vision of childhood haunted by a mythic struggle between the forces of Good and Evil” (Davis). With the original “Fireside” plate present in vol. III, p. 312 and in a ribbed cloth variant binding without the imprint stamped on the lower spines as described by Smith. Eckel, pp. 59-63; Sadleir 696; Smith 4; Podeschi/Gimbel A27.

Three volumes, octavo (206 x 121mm). Half titles in volumes I and II as called for, etched frontispieces and 21 plates by George Cruikshank (a few scattered stains, some foxing to plates and at ends, vol. I frontispiece detached, plates toned). Original plum horizontally-lined gilt-stamped cloth, covers stamped in blind, yellow coated endpapers (some staining, bumped, recased with spine ends reinforced, spines sunned, endpapers soiled). Provenance: Ernest[?] Drummond (ownership inscriptions) – Algernon Heneage Drummond (bookplates dated 1893).