The Christmas Books: A Christmas Carol; The Chimes; The Battle of Life; Cricket on the Hearth; The Haunted Man and The Ghost’s Bargain.

COMPLETE SET OF DICKENS' CHRISTMAS BOOKS, elaborately bound in full morocco by Root Bindery

The Christmas Books: A Christmas Carol; The Chimes; The Battle of Life; Cricket on the Hearth; The Haunted Man and The Ghost’s Bargain.

DICKENS, Charles.

Item Number: 139117

London: Chapman and Hall, 1843-48.

Complete set of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Books. Octavo, five volumes elaborately bound in full crushed red morocco by Root with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, double gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, all edges gilt, illustrated. A Christmas Carol is a later state, half-title printed in blue, title page in red and blue, dated 1843, colored plates, “Stave One” as opposed to “Stave I” on first page of text; this seems to be a mixed issue composed of points associated with 1844 editions, perhaps even 1845, hard to figure out, probably done by the binder for the carriage trade. The Chimes is a second issue with “Chapman and Hall” outside the border of the vignette engraving on the engraved title page. Light old tidemark from old dampness to engraved title page and frontispiece, hard even to see it. The Cricket on the Hearth is a second state with ad leaf at the rear headed “New Edition of Oliver Twist” with three lines in italics beneath it. The Battle of Life is a later state with cupid holding a banner on the engraved title page on which is written, “A Love Story & The Haunted Man” is a first printing, light damp-stain tidemark to inner corner of some pages, including frontispiece and title. An attractive example of Dickens’ famed work.

A Christmas Carol "may readily be called the Bible of Christmas It was issued about ten days before Christmas, 1843, and 6000 copies were sold on the first day"(Eckel, 110). "It was a work written at the height of Dickens’ great powers, which would add to his considerable fame, bring a new work to the English language, increase the festivities at Christmastime, and contain his most eloquent protest at the condition of the poor" (John Mortimer). "Suddenly conceived and written within a few weeks, [A Christmas Carol] was the first of Dickens’ Christmas books (a new literary genre thus created incidentally) it was an extraordinary achievement—the one great Christmas myth of modern literature."

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