THE COMPLETE WORKS by DICKENS, CHARLES - 1902]

New York and London: Harper & Brothers, [ca, 1902]. 213 x 146 mm. (8 3/8 x 5 3/4"). 20 works in 30 volumes. Publisher's appealing deluxe binding of red half morocco over pink marbled boards, raised bands, spine gilt in three small and one large compartment, the latter containing an elongated Art Nouveau-style rose topiary, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, other edges rough trimmed. ALL BUT ONE OF THE VOLUMES UNOPENED. Illustrated throughout. Spines slightly affected by light (each spine evenly so, but with differing resultant shades), a little wear to extremities, bottom corner of one leaf torn off with loss of a couple of letters, another leaf with small hole and the same degree of loss, other trivial imperfections, but an excellent set of a readable edition from a major publisher, with sturdy bindings that show almost no wear to the joints and an essentially unread text that obviously shows almost no signs of use. This is a pleasing, unread set of the ever-popular works of Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-70), a writer whose creations are familiar to millions, either directly or through one of the multitude of movies and television shows based on his fiction. As DNB observes, Dickens had an "extraordinary ability to create, and give unforgettably expressive names to, figures who are highly individualized by their physical appearance, dress, and mannerisms, and who are also powerfully allegorical, being brilliant incarnations of various aspects of perennial human nature." Dickens was admired by his contemporaries as a masterful story teller, and despite the disdain of early 20th century critics, he remains popular today both in academic circles and with the reading public. DNB says that "there can be few other English writers--apart, of course, from Shakespeare--with such widespread influence as Dickens, not only on their successors in the national literature, but also on major foreign writers, and few have been the subject of so many outstanding treatises by foreign critics.