Charles Dickens

A first edition, first issue copy of the holiday classic A Christmas Carol.

• Charles Dickens (English, 1812-1870).
• A Christmas Carol In Prose Being A Ghost Story of Christmas.
• London: Chapman and Hall, 1843.
• Illustrated with 4 hand-colored engraved plates by John Leech and 4 black and white illustrations by W.J. Linton.
• Bound in fine full red morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine, covers ruled and paneled in gilt, gilt dentelles, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, all edges gilt, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

Regarded as Dickens' most widely read novel and considered to be "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel p. 116) selling more than 6,000 copies in the few days leading up to Christmas. The work was extravagantly costly as Dickens for the first time (and incidentally his last) used color in the title-page and etchings, as he wanted to make the book a beautiful gift and to be a celebration of the Christmas spirit. After the initial success, Dickens continued the series throughout the 1840s, maintaining "the Carol" philosophy to "strike a sledgehammer blow" for the poor, uneducated and repressed.