14
Dickens, Bleak House, Original Parts 1852-53
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Description
Bleak House, By Charles Dickens, in the original monthly parts as issued, complete with the original 20 parts bound in 19, in blue wrappers, with illustrations by H. K. Browne, London: Bradbury & Evans, Bouverie Street, first edition, first issue. The bottom of the front wrapper of No. I reads “Agents: J. Menzies, Edinburgh; Murray And Son, Glasgow; J. M’Glashan, Dublin” and “Notice is hereby given that the Author of ‘Bleak House’ reserves to himself the right of publishing a Translation in France”, and the notice about publishing rights is in heavier type than the line about the agents; this is altered in No. V and subsequent numbers to read “The Author of this work notifies that it is his intention to reserve the right of translating it.” There are 40 plates altogether and all the plates are present, including the Dark Plates, and the parts are housed in a custom slipcase.
The book was Dickens’ ninth novel and was published in monthly installments that ran from March 1852 through September 1853. The last installment had two parts - No. 19 and 20 - bound as one and cost 2 shillings, instead of the usual 1 shilling for each of the parts.
The outer slipcase measures 9 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. wide and has “Bleak House, Charles Dickens, 1852 - 3, Original Parts” in gilt lettering on the spine, and the blue wrappers are 8vo. and measure 8 7/8 x 5 5/8 in. wide.
There are two substantive innovations in this novel: Dickens used short titles instead of long ones, and he changed the wrappers from green to blue.
All the plates, slips, and ads which are called for are present to make this a first edition, first issue. There are forty plates altogether, and No. IX has the white slip which reads “An accident having happened to the Plate, it has been necessary to cancel one of the Illustrations to the present Number. It will be supplied in the next Monthly part.” The accident happened because the illustrator made a mistake by introducing Grandmother Smallweed into the etching, instead of the fair “Judy”, and the plate was cancelled, then corrected and issued in the next number, so No. IX only has one plate and No. X has three plates, as called for. (See Hatton and Cleaver page 291.)
The following also need to be present, according to Eckel, and they are here: Nos. XI and XIII have the mauve slips concerning “Handley Cross”; No. XV has an eight-page slip about the “Village Pastor”; Nos. XIX and XX have the announcement of the publication of the “The Newcomes” on a yellow slip of paper, and all the parts have the Bleak House Advertiser present at the beginning of each part. According to Hatton and Cleaver, two other ads called for are present here too: the scarce “Grace Aguilar’s Works” ad in Nos. XIII and XVI and the “New Geographical Educational Works” ad in No. XIV. (The Grace Aguilar ad in No. XVI has only 2 of the 8 pages it’s supposed to have, and that is the only lacking in all the parts.)
The Dark Plates were the result of “machine-tinting” the steel engravings, which gave an effect of mezzo-tinting. The steel was first closely ruled with fine lines and then the design was etched over the ruling; after that, the plates were burnished and the sense of light and shadow was heightened. The Dark Plates here also have clear lines on the captions, instead of fuzzy or smudged lines, and these clear lines indicate earlier plates and printings. (See Eckel page 73, when Eckel speaks about the captions for the plates in Dombey and Son - this makes a critical difference in understanding whether you have an early printing or a later printing of a Dickens work.)
There are other indications of an early printing here too. No. I has uncut pages in the ad for Norton’s Camomile Pills in the rear; page 2 in the front ads of No. IV and VII are not paginated, as well as page 4 of the front ads in No. XVII; the “10” on page 10 of the front ads in No. XI and XIV has bold I’s; the slip for Household Words in No. X is inserted upside down, and a slip for Thomas Anderson & Son is inserted before the Bleak House Advertiser in No. XVII and this error is not mentioned in Hatton and Cleaver at all; and there are five lines of errata at the back of XIX - XX.
There are tissue guards in between many of the plates, owners’ names at the top of four wrappers (Nos. VIII, IX, XIII, and XVIII) and light browning or foxing on some plates; some wrappers have numbers circled in pencil on the first page of the front ads (we don’t know why), one plate is loose (in No. XVI) and one plate has a one inch tear in the bottom margin (No. XIV). There is light wear on the heel of a few wrappers and some folds or light wear at the edges of a few wrappers, but the front of the wrappers are generally very clean and have no soiling. There is also a slight seam separation at the top of the outer slipcase, but it does not detract from the binding, and it is difficult to find a complete first edition set with all the points of issue called for, and overall this is a very attractive set of the first issue for Bleak House.
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 for identifying first editions and first issues in the periodicals of Dickens.
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Bleak House, By Charles Dickens, in the original monthly parts as issued, complete with the original 20 parts bound in 19, in blue wrappers, with illustrations by H. K. Browne, London: Bradbury & Evans, Bouverie Street, first edition, first issue. The bottom of the front wrapper of No. I reads “Agents: J. Menzies, Edinburgh; Murray And Son, Glasgow; J. M’Glashan, Dublin” and “Notice is hereby given that the Author of ‘Bleak House’ reserves to himself the right of publishing a Translation in France”, and the notice about publishing rights is in heavier type than the line about the agents; this is altered in No. V and subsequent numbers to read “The Author of this work notifies that it is his intention to reserve the right of translating it.” There are 40 plates altogether and all the plates are present, including the Dark Plates, and the parts are housed in a custom slipcase.
The book was Dickens’ ninth novel and was published in monthly installments that ran from March 1852 through September 1853. The last installment had two parts - No. 19 and 20 - bound as one and cost 2 shillings, instead of the usual 1 shilling for each of the parts.
The outer slipcase measures 9 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. wide and has “Bleak House, Charles Dickens, 1852 - 3, Original Parts” in gilt lettering on the spine, and the blue wrappers are 8vo. and measure 8 7/8 x 5 5/8 in. wide.
There are two substantive innovations in this novel: Dickens used short titles instead of long ones, and he changed the wrappers from green to blue.
All the plates, slips, and ads which are called for are present to make this a first edition, first issue. There are forty plates altogether, and No. IX has the white slip which reads “An accident having happened to the Plate, it has been necessary to cancel one of the Illustrations to the present Number. It will be supplied in the next Monthly part.” The accident happened because the illustrator made a mistake by introducing Grandmother Smallweed into the etching, instead of the fair “Judy”, and the plate was cancelled, then corrected and issued in the next number, so No. IX only has one plate and No. X has three plates, as called for. (See Hatton and Cleaver page 291.)
The following also need to be present, according to Eckel, and they are here: Nos. XI and XIII have the mauve slips concerning “Handley Cross”; No. XV has an eight-page slip about the “Village Pastor”; Nos. XIX and XX have the announcement of the publication of the “The Newcomes” on a yellow slip of paper, and all the parts have the Bleak House Advertiser present at the beginning of each part. According to Hatton and Cleaver, two other ads called for are present here too: the scarce “Grace Aguilar’s Works” ad in Nos. XIII and XVI and the “New Geographical Educational Works” ad in No. XIV. (The Grace Aguilar ad in No. XVI has only 2 of the 8 pages it’s supposed to have, and that is the only lacking in all the parts.)
The Dark Plates were the result of “machine-tinting” the steel engravings, which gave an effect of mezzo-tinting. The steel was first closely ruled with fine lines and then the design was etched over the ruling; after that, the plates were burnished and the sense of light and shadow was heightened. The Dark Plates here also have clear lines on the captions, instead of fuzzy or smudged lines, and these clear lines indicate earlier plates and printings. (See Eckel page 73, when Eckel speaks about the captions for the plates in Dombey and Son - this makes a critical difference in understanding whether you have an early printing or a later printing of a Dickens work.)
There are other indications of an early printing here too. No. I has uncut pages in the ad for Norton’s Camomile Pills in the rear; page 2 in the front ads of No. IV and VII are not paginated, as well as page 4 of the front ads in No. XVII; the “10” on page 10 of the front ads in No. XI and XIV has bold I’s; the slip for Household Words in No. X is inserted upside down, and a slip for Thomas Anderson & Son is inserted before the Bleak House Advertiser in No. XVII and this error is not mentioned in Hatton and Cleaver at all; and there are five lines of errata at the back of XIX - XX.
There are tissue guards in between many of the plates, owners’ names at the top of four wrappers (Nos. VIII, IX, XIII, and XVIII) and light browning or foxing on some plates; some wrappers have numbers circled in pencil on the first page of the front ads (we don’t know why), one plate is loose (in No. XVI) and one plate has a one inch tear in the bottom margin (No. XIV). There is light wear on the heel of a few wrappers and some folds or light wear at the edges of a few wrappers, but the front of the wrappers are generally very clean and have no soiling. There is also a slight seam separation at the top of the outer slipcase, but it does not detract from the binding, and it is difficult to find a complete first edition set with all the points of issue called for, and overall this is a very attractive set of the first issue for Bleak House.
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 for identifying first editions and first issues in the periodicals of Dickens.
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