THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB

Early Issue. Engraved frontispiece and title-page and with a plethora of engraved illustrations by R. Seymour and H. K. Browne, ‘Phiz’. 8vo, very handsomely bound in contemporary 3/4 dark green morocco over green and blue marbled paper covered boards, the spine with raised bands gilt tooled and bordered with gilt fillet lines and frames, central gilt devices to the compartments,two compartments lettered in gilt, marbled endleaves, top edge gilt, others marbled. xiv, 609 pp. A very fine and attractive copy, especially well preserved and in lovely condition.

Edizione: a very handsome early printing in a beautiful binding. “pickwick was issued when dickens’ name was just beginning to excite the attention of prescient publishers and be recognized by readers in search of entertaining novels . the publication of pickwick, which ran through twenty numbers, made for all time an english classic--a book representative of its age, exhibiting the life and the ideals of an important class of english folk, on the threshold of the victorian era.<br> now, over a century and a half later, pickwick holds its assured place in the literature of our tongue, and, among all its author’s works, seems to have the best chance of achieving what is known as immortality. the book was an improvisation. dickens was led by his genius and by the indulgence of his jocuse fancy into picturing all the popular life which his varied experience in and out of london had made familiar to him. and it is a book that appeals throughout life--to the child and to the person of late years.’ (gissing) like others of dickens’ creations, it is a masterpiece.