DICKENS | The Mystery of Edwin Drood, 1870, first edition, original parts

DICKENS, CHARLES

The Mystery of Edwin Drood. London: Chapman and Hall, April 1870 - September 1870

8vo (224 x 146mm.), FIRST EDITION FIRST ISSUE IN ORIGINAL SIX PARTS, portrait frontispiece and 12 plates wood-engraved after Luke Fildes, the majority of advertisements and slips as called for (as often Parts 3, 5 and 6 lacking 4pp., 8pp and 4pp. at end), including THE RARE 'CORK HATS SLIP' in Part 2, original green pictorial wrappers, PART 6 FIRST ISSUE WITH 'PRICE EIGHTEENPENCE' SLIP PASTED OVER ORIGINAL INCORRECT PRICE, collector's cloth chemise and full red morocco slipcase, spine lettered in gilt, upper cover to Part 1 and lower cover to Part 3 loose, backstrips generally slightly chipped with minimal loss at head and foot

Dickens began to write the story with the unsolved mystery in August 1869. He had only completed six parts by the time of his death. Much has been written about the illustrations on the wrappers possibly providing clues to the solving of the mystery. Dickens found the story hard to write and the original manuscript is filled with corrections and annotations. He died on June 9 1870 leaving 'one of the best unfinised mystery stories in literature'. 

LITERATURE:

Hatton and Cleaver pp. 373-[384]; Eckel pp. 96-98