IN PUBLISHER'S PRESENTATION BINDING
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
Chapman and Hall, 1839.
First edition. 8vo. Original publisher's presentation binding of full green morocco with gilt titles and decorated raised bands to spine. Borders stamped in blind on the covers. All edges gilt. Steel engraved frontispiece of Dickens after D. Maclise, and 39 full page steel engraved plates in the text by Phiz [Halbot Browne]. A very good copy indeed, which is bright and clean, just slight rubbing to the corners. Internally fresh, with some browning and foxing to the plates as usual. Bookplates on the pastedown and front free endpaper, and previous ownership name inked in on the title page.
Dickens's third novel. Following on from the success of Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, it owes much to the author's admiration of the picturesque eighteenth century novels of Smollet and Fielding. Nickleby also marks a development in Dickens's narrative style, and can be considered the first of his 'romances', whereby he has imbued his characters with an emotional sensibility that is not sentimental, nor is at the expense of realism.
Nicholas Nickleby was originally issued in monthly parts, and when the serialisation was completed issued as a book in cloth. The publishers also had a small number of copies bound up in full morocco. It is likely that these were never offered for sale and were used by either author or publisher for presentation. Certainly, a domestic census of copies inscribed by Dickens on publication show them all to be in this binding. It is significantly rarer than either the cloth or parts issue, particularly so in such a well preserved state.
Stock ID: 31627
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