15
Dickens, Little Dorrit, 1st Ed, 1st Issue 1855-57
1/6
Description
Little Dorrit, By Charles Dickens. With Illustrations By H.K. Browne. London: Bradbury & Evans, Bouverie Street. Agents: J. Menzies, Edinburgh; Murray And Son, Glasgow; J. M’Glashan, Dublin. The Author reserves the right of Translation” on all the front covers, with twenty monthly parts bound in nineteen, as issued; the last part was a double number (XIX and XX bound together) and all the parts are in the original blue wrappers.
The first number came out in December, 1855 and ran through June, 1857.
There are forty plates by Hablot K. Browne altogether, including the eight Dark Plates.
The title page is at the rear of Nos. XIX - XX, with the imprint of Bradbury & Evans on the reverse of the title page (“London: Bradbury & Evans, Printers, Whitefriars”) and an unnumbered page dedicated to Clarkson Stanfield, three pages of preface, followed by four pages of contents, a list of plates on two pages, and three lines of errata at the bottom of page xiv at the rear, and 625 pages of text altogether, and this is a first edition, first issue set with all the slips and ads and plates called for by Eckel and Hatton and Cleaver, including the “Dark Plates”.
This was the last time that Dickens worked with Bradbury & Evans and the last of the big novels published by this firm. Part of this was related to a fallout they had about drinking and alcohol - Bradbury & Evans were teetotalers, while Dickens believed in moderate drinking. Chapman & Hall became the publishers of nearly everything Dickens wrote after this.
Little Dorrit was perhaps the saddest of all Dickens novels because the story was about imprisonment for debt, an occurrence which happened too often and just rubbed Dickens the wrong way, and the dark plates helped set the somber tone of the novel.
Hablot K. Browne (1815 - 1882) was an English artist who illustrated many of Dickens’ novels. His pen name was “Phiz”, and in order to help set this dark tone, Browne incorporated a technique called “dark plate” - the plates were produced by using a ruling-machine that cut close-spaced criss-crossed lines into the steel plates, and these lines created an overall dark cast on the plates, which was ideally suited to convey an atmosphere that matched the somber theme of the book.
The dark plates were first introduced in Dombey and Son and Browne continued to
use the dark plate technique here and in Bleak House, and there are eight dark plates altogether (in Parts I, II, III, IV, VII, VIII, and XIX - XX).
The book was attacked by many critics, but must have been popular with everyday people because it sold very well. Each part cost one shilling, with the last part (Nos. XIX and XX) priced at two shillings because it was a double issue - two numbers in one.
All the “Little Dorrit Advertisers” are present at the beginning of each wrapper, there are 12 pages of ads in the front of each part, except for No. I and No. XVI — No. I has 32 pages of preliminary ads and No. XVI has 8 pages of ads in front, all as called for by Hatton and Cleaver.
There are very few points of issue to be noted. The main one is the white slip about a name mix-up involving two characters (Rigaud and Blandois), and the second is about another name mix-up (“William” for “Frederick”). The first edition, first issue must have the white slip on page 481 in No. XVI to explain an error in No. XV, and the slip is present here. The slip is about one-third the size of page 481, and on it, Dickens describes the error made in the text of No. XV, in which the names “Rigaud” and “Blandois" had been mixed up. (See Eckel page 84). “Rigaud “ was used for “Blandois” seven times on pages 467 to 473 in No. XV and this error was not corrected in the first issue; in the corrected versions published later on, “Rigaud” was changed to “Blandois”, and the names are uncorrected here, as called for to be a first issue.
There’s an errata note at the bottom of the list of plates at the rear of No. XX, and the note says that on page 317 in No. X, line 27 must read “William” instead of “Frederick” for the story to be considered a first issue, and indeed, the uncorrected version with “William” is present here; the corrected version in later issues reads “Frederick” instead of “William”.
There are no tissue guards in between the plates, except in No. XX, there are a few uncut pages on the front ads in Nos. III, VII, and XIII and at the rear of No. XX, the owner’s name is on the front of several wrappers, there is light wear at the heel or crown on a few spines, light browning or foxing on some of the plates, but the captions on the Dark Plates are very crisp and not fuzzy or smudged, there’s light soiling on the front of a couple of covers and the rest are very clean, the text is very clean, and there’s been no repairs or restoration to the parts.
The green custom box has “Little Dorrit”, “Charles Dickens”, and “Original Parts” in black on the spine and it measures 9 13/16 x 5 5/8 in. wide x 4 1/4 in. across at the spine, and the wrappers are 8vo. and measure 8 7/8 x 5 5/8 in. wide.
So overall this is an attractive first edition, first issue set of Little Dorrit in the original wrappers, with all the slips and ads and plates as called for, and both points of issue are present.
See The First Editions Of Charles Dickens, Their Points and Values, John C. Eckel 1932 and A Bibliography of the Periodical Works of Charles Dickens: Bibliographical, Analytical & Statistical, by Thomas Hatton and Arthur Cleaver 1933, reprinted by Martino Publishing 1999.
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Little Dorrit, By Charles Dickens. With Illustrations By H.K. Browne. London: Bradbury & Evans, Bouverie Street. Agents: J. Menzies, Edinburgh; Murray And Son, Glasgow; J. M’Glashan, Dublin. The Author reserves the right of Translation” on all the front covers, with twenty monthly parts bound in nineteen, as issued; the last part was a double number (XIX and XX bound together) and all the parts are in the original blue wrappers.
The first number came out in December, 1855 and ran through June, 1857.
There are forty plates by Hablot K. Browne altogether, including the eight Dark Plates.
The title page is at the rear of Nos. XIX - XX, with the imprint of Bradbury & Evans on the reverse of the title page (“London: Bradbury & Evans, Printers, Whitefriars”) and an unnumbered page dedicated to Clarkson Stanfield, three pages of preface, followed by four pages of contents, a list of plates on two pages, and three lines of errata at the bottom of page xiv at the rear, and 625 pages of text altogether, and this is a first edition, first issue set with all the slips and ads and plates called for by Eckel and Hatton and Cleaver, including the “Dark Plates”.
This was the last time that Dickens worked with Bradbury & Evans and the last of the big novels published by this firm. Part of this was related to a fallout they had about drinking and alcohol - Bradbury & Evans were teetotalers, while Dickens believed in moderate drinking. Chapman & Hall became the publishers of nearly everything Dickens wrote after this.
Little Dorrit was perhaps the saddest of all Dickens novels because the story was about imprisonment for debt, an occurrence which happened too often and just rubbed Dickens the wrong way, and the dark plates helped set the somber tone of the novel.
Hablot K. Browne (1815 - 1882) was an English artist who illustrated many of Dickens’ novels. His pen name was “Phiz”, and in order to help set this dark tone, Browne incorporated a technique called “dark plate” - the plates were produced by using a ruling-machine that cut close-spaced criss-crossed lines into the steel plates, and these lines created an overall dark cast on the plates, which was ideally suited to convey an atmosphere that matched the somber theme of the book.
The dark plates were first introduced in Dombey and Son and Browne continued to
use the dark plate technique here and in Bleak House, and there are eight dark plates altogether (in Parts I, II, III, IV, VII, VIII, and XIX - XX).
The book was attacked by many critics, but must have been popular with everyday people because it sold very well. Each part cost one shilling, with the last part (Nos. XIX and XX) priced at two shillings because it was a double issue - two numbers in one.
All the “Little Dorrit Advertisers” are present at the beginning of each wrapper, there are 12 pages of ads in the front of each part, except for No. I and No. XVI — No. I has 32 pages of preliminary ads and No. XVI has 8 pages of ads in front, all as called for by Hatton and Cleaver.
There are very few points of issue to be noted. The main one is the white slip about a name mix-up involving two characters (Rigaud and Blandois), and the second is about another name mix-up (“William” for “Frederick”). The first edition, first issue must have the white slip on page 481 in No. XVI to explain an error in No. XV, and the slip is present here. The slip is about one-third the size of page 481, and on it, Dickens describes the error made in the text of No. XV, in which the names “Rigaud” and “Blandois" had been mixed up. (See Eckel page 84). “Rigaud “ was used for “Blandois” seven times on pages 467 to 473 in No. XV and this error was not corrected in the first issue; in the corrected versions published later on, “Rigaud” was changed to “Blandois”, and the names are uncorrected here, as called for to be a first issue.
There’s an errata note at the bottom of the list of plates at the rear of No. XX, and the note says that on page 317 in No. X, line 27 must read “William” instead of “Frederick” for the story to be considered a first issue, and indeed, the uncorrected version with “William” is present here; the corrected version in later issues reads “Frederick” instead of “William”.
There are no tissue guards in between the plates, except in No. XX, there are a few uncut pages on the front ads in Nos. III, VII, and XIII and at the rear of No. XX, the owner’s name is on the front of several wrappers, there is light wear at the heel or crown on a few spines, light browning or foxing on some of the plates, but the captions on the Dark Plates are very crisp and not fuzzy or smudged, there’s light soiling on the front of a couple of covers and the rest are very clean, the text is very clean, and there’s been no repairs or restoration to the parts.
The green custom box has “Little Dorrit”, “Charles Dickens”, and “Original Parts” in black on the spine and it measures 9 13/16 x 5 5/8 in. wide x 4 1/4 in. across at the spine, and the wrappers are 8vo. and measure 8 7/8 x 5 5/8 in. wide.
So overall this is an attractive first edition, first issue set of Little Dorrit in the original wrappers, with all the slips and ads and plates as called for, and both points of issue are present.
See The First Editions Of Charles Dickens, Their Points and Values, John C. Eckel 1932 and A Bibliography of the Periodical Works of Charles Dickens: Bibliographical, Analytical & Statistical, by Thomas Hatton and Arthur Cleaver 1933, reprinted by Martino Publishing 1999.
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