Charles Dickens

A first edition copy of Dickens' Oliver Twist.

• Sold as a set of 3 volumes.
• Charles Dickens (English).
• Illustrated by George Cruikshank.
• London: Richard Bentley, 1838.
• Bound in full 19th-century brown calf with red and green morocco spine labels and gilt decoration, top edges gilt, marbled endpapers.

Dickens's second novel, Oliver Twist, provided the author with an ideal canvas for his most furious and dazzling rages against injustice, against hypocrisy, against poverty and against base corruption. At its center is the pure and put-upon Oliver, flung from the cruelty of the orphanarium into the viciousness of a den of thieves, surely the most virtuous and long-suffering of all shining Victorian child saints—at least, of all those who survive the three-volume novels in which they find themselves—and around him orbit a selection of some of the most memorable villains in English literature.

The first edition in book form was published before the final installments had yet appeared in serial form, and consequently Dickens objected to Cruikshank's final illustration too late to prevent its inclusion in the first issue; his desired substitution was completed by November 16, 1838, along with certain modifications to the title page (Smith). This copy, while bearing all indications of the first issue, is distinguished by the additional inclusion of the later "Church" plate, likely added during its rebinding.