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Dickens, Charles : GREAT EXPECTATIONS (CT 3 VOLS.)

Chapman and Hall,, London, 1861

12mo 7" - 7½" tall; 344, 351, 344 pages; This is the mixed first edition printed from 1st edition sheets in various so-called 'issues'. Volume I 'Second edition; Vol II 'Second Edition' and Vol III 'Fifth Edition'. It was not uncommon to print unneeded numbered editions to make the book appear to have more successful sales. In this case the 'First issue' was largely subscribed by libraries. This set, like most sets, has a mix of impressions and it should be noted that the editors of the Clarendon edition state that "there is no warrant for treating the five impressions as distinct editions: no authorial revision distinguishes one from another; blatant errors of substance remain uncorrected; a few errors in accidentals are corrected but many more remain." They were all printed in the same year and can be considered 1st editions. So-called "fifth edition" is in fact a first edition, fifth issue, published on 30 October 1861 (the first issue had appeared on 6 July, and secnd, third and fourth issues--also termed "editions" on the title pages--on 5 August, 17 August and September 17 respectively). See Walter E. Smith, Dickens in the Original Cloth, p.103 ("...the first five issues were probably printed at a single impression and published with altered titlepapges to imply and encourage a rapid sale...The genuine second edition was the one-volume `Library Edition' which Chapman and Hall published in 1862..." ). Nicely bound in brown calf with gilt stamped spines and black morocco spine labels. No inserted advertisements at end of vol.3. Provenance H S Tompkinson- neat signature at top of title page. Otherwise contents clean and unmarked., Very Good+ with no dust jacket

First Edition

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