Dickens, Charles | "Bah," said Scrooge. "Humbug."

Dickens, Charles

Five Christmas Books. London: 1843-1848

A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being A Ghost Story of Christmas. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843. Half-title, hand-colored frontispiece, title-page printed in blue and red, 3 hand-colored etched plates by John Leech, "Stave One" on p.[1], 2pp. advertisements at rear; minor toning, one or two stray spots. Original green endpapers bound in at end; endpapers rubbed. First edition. — The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In. London: Chapman and Hall, 1845 [1844]. Publisher's advertisement for A Christmas Carol, half-title, 13 illustrations, including frontispiece and vignette title, by Maclise, Doyle, Leech and Stanfield, second state of the vignette title; minor toning. First edition. — The Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy Tale of Home. London: Bradbury and Evans for the author, 1846 [1845]. Half-title, 14 illustrations, including frontispiece and vignette title, by Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise and Landseer, 2pp. advertisements at rear; one or two stray spots. First edition. — The Battle of Life. A Love Story. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1846. Half-title, 13 illustrations, including frontispiece and vignette title, by Maclise, Doyle, Leech and Stanfield, fourth state of the vignette title, 2pp. advertisements at rear; one or two stray spots. First edition, fourth state. — The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1848. Half-title, 7 illustrations, including frontispiece and vignette title by Leech, Stanfield, Tenniel and Stone; frontispiece detached by present, one or two stray spots. First edition.

Together 5 volumes, all foolscap 8vo (160 x 100 mm). Uniformly bound by Bayntun-Riviere of Bath, full red morocco, covers with gilt rules, spines with raised bands in six compartments, second and third gilt lettered, other with repeat decorations in gilt, all edges gilt, inner dentelles gilt, marbled endpapers, remnants of publishers' cloth bound in at end of each volume; very faint sunning to spine.

A handsomely bound set of Dickens' Christmas Books

After the success Dickens achieved with A Christmas Carol in 1843, the author continued the series through the 1840s, maintaining what he called "the Carol philosophy," to "strike a sledgehammer blow" for the poor, uneducated, and repressed. In characteristic fashion, Dickens underscored his message with a mixture of humor and mirth.

REFERENCE

Eckel 110-125