Oliver Twist; Or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. A Tale of Two Cities. [Fore-edge Painting].

DICKENS, Charles.

Item Number: 122700

London: Chapman and Hall, n.d..

Finely bound example of two of Dickens’ best-known works, with a fore-edge painting. Octavo, bound in three quarter morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, marbled endpapers, illustrated by Cruikshank and Browne, all edges gilt with a fore-edge painting by Martin Frost displaying four scenes from Oliver Twist. In very good condition. Ownership inscription.

"Dickens turned in Oliver Twist to the novel of crime and terror Some characters are drawn with humorous realism, but for the most part humor is dimmed by gloomy memories of the author’s own neglected childhood and sensational scenes are shrouded in an atmosphere genuinely eerie and sinister That Dickens shared with his contemporaries the conviction that the novel should be an instrument of social reform is evident in Oliver Twist" (Baugh).