LITERATURE 14 “A Clarity And Pungency That Surpasses The Rest Of His Work” 12DICKENS, Charles. Bleak House. London, 1852-53. Twenty parts in 19, as issued. Octavo, original blue paper wrappers, custom clamshell box. $9000 Scarce first edition in original parts and wrappers of Dickens’ ambitious, bracing masterpiece, with 40 engraved illustrations, including frontispiece and nine other dramatic “dark plates,” as well as vignette title page. An excellent unrestored copy, with most ads present. Structured “with a daring double narrative and centered on institutional satire,” Bleak House is “technically [Dickens’] most ambitious novel and widely held to be his masterpiece” (Schlicke, 45). “The Dickens cosmos, his phantasmagoric London and visionary England, emerges in Bleak House with a clarity and pungency that surpasses the rest of his work, before and after” (Bloom, 311). Interiors generally quite clean and fine. Light wear to a few spine ends; occasional light edge-wear or creasing, as often, but generally near-fine. A lovely unrestored copy. “Human Life… Somehow Larger And Brighter Than The Reality” 11DICKENS, Charles. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. London, 1838-1839. Twenty parts in nineteen. Octavo, original printed green wrappers neatly respined or repaired, custom clamshell box. $7800 First edition, first issue, in original parts of one of Dickens’ most popular works, illustrated with 39 engraved plates by Hablot K. Browne (“Phiz”). A nicely refurbished copy with almost all of the advertisements present. The plot, the characters, the dialogue—indeed “everything about [Nickleby] has the feel of theatre; it is as if Dickens saw human life conducted among lights of the stage, making it somehow large and brighter than the reality” (Ackroyd, 283). Text and plates generally quite clean, with only a hint of foxing to a very few plates. Wrappers generally respined or with neat repairs along spines; Part 6 and Part 7 rear wrappers have been swapped, possibly at time of respining, as they are quite similar. Light wear and creasing along wrapper edges as often. Extremely good in the original parts.
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