Dickens, Charles | "Great Expectations," first edition, fifth impression

Dickens, Charles

Great Expectations. London: Chapman and Hall, 1861

3 volumes, 8vo (196 x 114 mm). Minor spotting to title-pages. Original publisher's violet wavy-grain cloth with floral decoration in blind on covers and spines lettered in gilt, yellowish white endpapers; volumes I and II very slightly cocked, spines toned, light shelfwear, front pastedown of volume three with some discoloration.

First edition, the fifth and final impression from the year of publication.

The first two volumes with the fifth impression issue points, according to the 1993 Clarendon edition, as follows:

Vol I: 25.25 mere trace of full stop after "it", 74.12 very faint full stop after "laugh", 97.11 faulty end-of-line comma, 149.21 faulty "s" in "earnings", 154.24 end-of-line hyphen missing, 227.26 dot of "i" in "its" missing and 293.13 faint full stop in volume I

Vol II: 3.24 no full stop visible, 5.10 faulty "an" in "and", 46.25 only one inverted comma, 51.10 end-of-line hyphen missing, 51.11 end-of-line hyphen missing, 86.6 end-of-line hyphen missing, 135.1 inverted comma after "am." missing, 146.4 end-of-line hyphen missing, 175.20 mere trace of comma after "[to-] gether", 185.19 no hyphen, 209.1 faulty end-of-line hyphen, 212.1 faulty comma, 213.25 no hyphen and 249.17 mere speck for end-of-line hyphen in volume II

The third volume supplied from another set, with the following issue points:

Vol III: 35.17 end-of-line "of" in some copies widely spaced (as here), 97.22 faults in "state of the" in some copies (as here), 258.17 "a" replaced in some copies (as here).

PROVENANCE:

Catherine Stourton (contemporary ownership inscription to volumes I and II) — Mary Topham (early ownership inscription to volume III)

REFERENCES:

Eckel, pp. 91-93; Smith II:14; Great Expectations (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, Appendix D)