Child's History of England

London: Bradbury & Evans, 1853. Full Description:

DICKENS, Charles. A Child's History of England. With a frontispiece by F.W. Topham. Volume I. [II. III.] London: Bradbury & Evans, 1854 [1855, 1854].

Mixed set with early editions of Volumes I and II, first edition of Volume III. Three small squarish foolscap octavo volumes (6 x 4 3/4 inches; 150 x 120 mm). xi, [1, blank], 210, [1, ads], [1, blank]; viii, 214,[1, ads], [1, blank]; viii, 321, [1, blank],[1, ads], [1, blank] pp. Bound with all half-titles. With a wood-engraved frontispiece in each volume, consisting of a centerpiece, printed in black, surrounded by four vignette illustrations, printed in a grayish mauve. Tissue guards.

Original moderate reddish brown bold-ribbed cloth. Covers stamped in blind, front covers pictorially stamped in gilt (depicting young Alfred reading to his mother). Spines lettered and stamped in gilt. Marbled endpapers and edges. Spines lightly sunned, as usual. Some minor rubbing to corners and bottoms of spines. Some minor foxing in text, as usual. Previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown of each volume. A lovely, bright set, almost fine.

"The germ of this book was in the mind of Dickens nearly ten years before the idea was perfected. In 1843 he wrote to Douglas Jerrold concerning it but no immediate result followed. In style, subject and composition it was different from anything he had attempted. For the first and only time he dictated his thoughts to a second person, Chapters II and IV only are in his manuscript, the balance being in the handwriting of Miss Georgina Hogarth, his wife's sister. Originally it appeared in Household Words at irregular times from January 25, 1851, to December 10, 1853, inclusive. As a serial it was in forty-five chapters, but in book form it was reduced to thirty-seven" (Eckel).

Smith II, 10. Eckel, pp. 128-130.

HBS 69103.

$1,250.