Beschreibung:

DICKENS, Charles. Great Expectations . London: Chapman and Hall, 1861. 3 volumes, 8 o. Original publisher's violet wavy-grained cloth, blocked in blind, spines gilt, yellow-coated endpapers, edges plain (some minor rubbing to extremities, otherwise very fine); quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance : Edward Chapman (1804-1880), Dickens's publisher (his bookplate in each volume, and possibly his pencil corrections on p. 162 and 164 [v. 2], p. 145 and p. 150 [v. 3]). DICKENS'S PUBLISHER, EDWARD CHAPMAN'S VERY FINE COPY WITH ALL THE EARLIEST ISSUE POINTS. FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EACH VOLUME, OF ONE OF DICKENS'S GREATEST WORKS, with the 32-page publisher's catalogue dated May 1861 at the end of vol. 3. Only 1000 copies of the first edition were published, with most of these copies going to libraries. This copy is remarkable in that it contains the earliest state of every point outlined in the extremely detailed analysis found in the Clarendon edition of Great Expectations (1993, Appendices C & D). The third volume of this copy contains the numeral "3" in the pagination on p. 103, and the "i" in "inflexible" on p. 193, which are sometimes missing in copies of the first impression of the third volume. A HIGHLY IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY. Edward Chapman (1804-1880) was the more literary of the partners at Chapman and Hall and it was he who originated the idea to issue Pickwick in monthly parts, a method which Dickens used throughout his career and which contributed to his success. The four pencil underlinings point out grammatical errors and may have been made by Chapman himself. On each of these four pages an age-toned strip appears in the gutter, which apparently resulted from a page-marker left by a contemporary reader (most likely Chapman) to locate or query these errors. [ Tipped-in vol. 2 :] DICKENS. Autograph addressed envelope (initial-signed "CD"), to his friend William W.F. de Cerjat, Lausanne, docketed Feb. 1, 1861. (3)