Bleak House: With Illustrations by H.K. Browne

London: Bradbury and Evans, 1853. BROWNE, Hablot Knight. . Bleak House. With Illustrations by H.K. Browne London: Bradbury and Evans, 1853.

Full Description:

DICKENS, Charles. Bleak House. With Illustrations by H.K. Browne London: Bradbury and Evans, 1853.

First edition with all first issue points as listed by Smith including "elgble" on page 19, line 6; "chair" on page 209, line 23; "counsinship" on page 275, line 22. The only two points not found are both only found in "Some copies" (pg 230, not missing the 2; Page 620, "received"). Octavo (8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches; 207 x 134 mm). [i-vii]viii-x[xi]xii-xiv[xv]xvi, [1]2-624. Complete with forty engraved plates including the frontispiece and engraved title. Bound with half-title.

Handsomely rebound in late 19th-century half polished tan calf, over tan cloth boards. Spine elaborately stamped in gilt. Spine with red and blue morocco spine labels, lettered in gilt. Top edge gilt. Spine is slightly darkened. Some rubbing to edes of boards. Previous owner's name in ink on title-page. Plates are oxidised as usual but text is clean. Overall a very good copy.

"[I]n Bleak House for the first time [society] is seen as an absurdity, an irrelevance, almost a madness. A dark force from which the real people must escape in order to create another society of their own... [Dickens] had been preparing for this novel all his life and, despite the calamities... which had helped to provoke it in the first place, ... was even happy while he was writing it... It might even be said that Bleak House cured the very malaise which was responsible for its composition" (Ackroyd, 649-50).

Smith, Dickens, I, 10..

HBS 69049.

$1,000.