THE POSTHUMOUS PAPER OF THE PICKWICK PAPERS de DICKENS, Charles (1812-70) - 1837: With Forty-Three Illustrations, by R. Seymour and PHIZ

First edition in book form with one first issue point ("S. Veller" on page 342, line 5) This is a slightly later issue with the name on the sign above the pub door corrected to 'Weller' (as opposed to 'Veller') and plates with captions and publisher's imprint. Medium 8vo (9 x 6 ins); pp xiv, (2), 609. Half title, preliminary plate, frontispiece and both titlepages present and unmarked. Engraved vignette title page, frontispiece, and 41 plates by Robert Seymour and H K Browne ('PHIZ'). Plates complete and remarkably clean with expert repair to a few. Two bookplates and small gift inscription to first free endpaper, dated Christmas 1932. Beautifully bound by Whitman Bennett (signed) in later full brown morocco with panelled spine, raised bands, gilt lettering and ornaments, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. A lovely copy of one of Dickens' most popular and enduring works. It was written when Dickens was twenty-four and its publication established the author on a solid foundation from which he was never removed. [Eckel, 17; Smith, 3]

A lovely, first edition in book form, of Dickens's first novel which was initially released in 19 issues over 20 months; the last was double-length and cost two shillings. In mourning for his sister-in-law Mary Hogarth, Dickens missed a deadline and consequently, there was no number issued in May 1837. Numbers were typically issued on the last day of its given month. Because of his success with 'Sketches by Boz' one year earlier, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to supply descriptions for a series of comic cockney sporting plates drawn by Robert Seymour and to weave them into a novel. The book became Britain's first real publishing blockbuster, spawning no end of bootleg copies, theatrical performances, Sam Weller joke books, and other gewgaws and merchandise.