THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY

London: Chapman and Hall, 1839. First edition, earliest issue in book form bound by the publisher using sheets from the monthly parts with the issue points as called for on pages 123 and 160, also with the first state of the first four plates bearing the publisher’s imprint on bottom. Engraved portrait frontispiece, and 39 engraved illustrations by 'Phiz.' 8vo, beautifully bound by Wallis in full tan calf, the spine with gilt-stippled raised bands between fully gilt decorated compartments featuring panels tooled in gilt at the edges and corners and with gilt floral devices at the center, two compartments with contrasting red and green morocco labels lettered and ruled in gilt, all edges gilt, marbled endleaves. xvi, 624 pp. A beautiful copy, the binding especially handsome and very skillfully accomplished, internally quite fresh and clean and very solid. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, RARE IN SUCH FINE CONDITION. ONE OF DICKENS’ MOST GROUNDBREAKING NOVELS. NICHOLAS NICKLEBY rode on the coattails of the success of THE PICKWICK PAPERS, commissioned by Chapman and Hall in November of 1837 for Ł150 per monthly installment, which was ten times the amount Dickens had received for THE PICKWICK PAPERS. 1838 was an incredibly prolific year for Dickens; he worked on NICKLEBY concurrently with OLIVER TWIST and BARNABY RUDGE, eventually deciding that the latter must be postponed in the interest of producing quality work on the projects already undertaken. In addition to his fiction, that year he became the first editor of the periodical BENTLEY’S MISCELLANY, in which OLIVER TWIST appeared. The success of NICKLEBY benefited from Dickens’ established popularity: the serial began in April 1838 and sold 48,000 copies of the first installment. It ended in October 1839, and the bound edition followed within a few months of its completion.
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY represents the beginning of Dickens’ lifelong warfare against the bad old methods of education. He deals with social abuses while still maintaining his characteristic good humor, attempting to address painful material while still “mak[ing] the reader mirthful over every detail that can be turned into merriment.” His style of prose and character development ushered in a new school of intense realism of human portraiture, and helped him early on to secure a place as a great figure in the annals of classic literature.