The Story of Little Dombey

Bradbury & Evans. London: Bradbury & Evans (1858). First edition. 12mo., original publishers green paper wrappers, with an illustration of little dombey on the upper wrapper, with decorations, the title and publishing information all in black. An advertisement in black on the lower panel; pp. 121 + an advertising leaf at the rear; An about very good copy. The upper panel corners rubbed with a few preliminary pages with the corners turned over. The spine is chipped with about 2cm off loss to the bottom, sporadic patches of browning here and there. Otherwise pages and wrappers are clean and the binding is holding well.  An abridged version of Dombey and Sons that Dicken's publisher would have printed after the success of his public reading tours. Bradbury and Evans produced five of these ephemeral booklets in 1858, that are referred to in Eckel as the 'reading editions'. Eckel goes on to say "Each was uniformly bound in a green, printed pictorial paper wrapper". Dickens had been on an extensive tour of the UK and America, reading extracts from his novels and so the publishers decided to print these special reading editions to commemorate his efforts. [Eckel p. 215]   . Very Good. Soft cover. 1st Edition. 1st Printing. 1858.