37 VOLUME SET OF LEVER’S WORKS, HANDSOMELY BOUND AND ILLUSTRATED

LEVER, Charles. Works. London: Downey, 1897-99. Thirty-nine volumes. Octavo, early 20th-century three-quarter burgundy morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $4000.

Limited “Copyright” edition, one of 1000 sets, richly illustrated with over 600 plates, including engraved frontispieces and title pages, handsomely bound by Zaehnsdorf.

“’Lever’s novels,’ says Anthony Trollope in his Autobiography, ‘are just like his conversation… Of all the men I have ever encountered, he was the surest fund of drollery… Rouse him in the middle of the night and wit would come from him before he was half awake” (DNB). Lever embarked on his literary career in part to support his lavish lifestyle of renting castles, visiting resorts, gambling, and entertaining such celebrities as Dickens and Thackeray. He is often praised for the vivacity and “Irish realism” of his work. With engravings by Hablot Knight Browne, Bartlett, McCormick, and others. Includes W.J. Fitzpatrick’s two-volume Life of Charles Lever (1879).

Very handsomely bound. Fine condition.