LITTLE DORRIT

London: Bradbury and Evans, 1857. First edition bound from the original parts, first issue with the points as called for including: the three line errata on page xiv, "William" for "Frederick" on page 317 line 27, B2 instead of BB2 on pp. 371, lacking errata on page 467, and "Rigaud" for "Blandois" on pp. 469, 470, 472, and 473. With 40 engraved illustrations by Phiz (H.K. Browne) including the frontispiece and vignette title-page. 8vo, bound in contemporary three-quarter tan calf over boards, lettered in gilt on a green morocco lettering piece, spine with raised bands lined and decorated in gilt. xiv, 623 pp. A handsome copy, very well preserved, spine a touch mellowed, one original wrapper bound in, some usual mellowing to plates, a fine, unwashed, clean and honest copy. FIRST EDITION FROM THE ORIGINAL PARTS. Bound in a handsome antique binding. Little Dorrit was published in 19 monthly installments, each two illustrations by Phiz. Each installment cost a shilling, with the exception of the last, a double issue, which cost two shillings. It is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society of the period. Much of Dickens' ire is focused upon the institutions of debtors' prisons—in which people who owed money were imprisoned, unable to work, until they repaid their debts. The representative prison in this case is the Marshalsea where the author's own father had been imprisoned.