Charles Dickens | A Christmas Carol, 1843, first edition, original cloth

Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843

12mo (164 x 102 mm.), FIRST EDITION, ECKEL'S SECOND ISSUE (red and blue title-page dated 1843, yellow endpapers, "Stave I", uncorrected text, blue half-title), half-title with early ownership inscription, hand-coloured engraved frontispiece, 3 hand-coloured engraved plates and 4 woodcuts in the text by John Leech, 2pp. advertisements at end, original cinnamon vertically ribbed cloth stamped in blind and gilt, gilt edges, yellow endpapers, covers lightly faded, some shelf-lean, otherwise a very good copy

AN ATTRACTIVE FIRST EDITION OF DICKENS' FIRST CHRISTMAS BOOK, THE NOVEL THAT ALMOST SINGLE-HANDEDLY INVENTED THE IDEA OF A JOYOUS CHRISTMAS. Dickens first had the concept in October 1843 and by the following month, John Leech, introduced to him by George Cruikshank, was working on the illustrations. Dickens composed the story in his head whilst walking the streets of London at night. It was issued ten days before Christmas and 6000 copies were sold on the first day. Dickens paid for the production on the understanding he took all the profit. It was, however, an excessively lavish and expensive production, so his profit was low even though sales were high. According to Eckel, first and second issues of the first edition have the same issue points except for the endpapers, which were originally green for the first issue, but were changed to yellow for the second issue. "This [second] issue, incidentally, is much scarcer than that with the green endpapers" (Eckel).

PROVENANCE:

early ownership inscription to half-title: "Mr H. Saxton | [?] Raby Place | R. Saxton" (possibly Raby Place, Bath)

LITERATURE:

Smith II: 4; Eckel pp. 110-115