LITTLE DORRITT

Dickens, Charles. LITTLE DORRITT. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1857. First edition, first issue with uncorrected text at pp. 467-74, signature 2B2 misprinted as "B2," etc. Original green cloth, gilt. Variant binding (no priority) with "LONDON MDCCCLVII" in gilt at foot, a variant not noted by Smith, but recorded elsewhere. Plates moderately browned (not foxed); text tight; covers much rubbed and marked, with many creases in spine; spine ends intact. The "octavo novels" have become extremely difficult to find in original cloth in decent condition, and nice copies of this work in this binding fetch five to ten times as much (for example, Sotheby, London, 11 July, 1996, sale 6412, lot 165, $3,680, spine sunned). Dicken's second novel to deal with the injustice of imprisonment for debt. The character Flora Finching was based on his early love, Maria Beadnell, and while the novel was being published, Dickens' marital problems became public knowledge. Bradbury & Evans refused Dickens' request to publish a notice regarding his marital problems, and this was his last novel published with the firm. Eckel, pp. 82-5. Smith I:12.