DICKENS, Charles.

£2,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Hard Times. First edition in book form, in the first issue binding with the price in gilt on the spine which was removed in later issues. Hard Times was the shortest, but also arguably the most political, of Dickens's novels, as well as being the only novel set entirely outside of London. The novel was originally issued in 20 weekly parts from April to August 1854. This copy has the later states of pages 122, 231, and 265, with Smith's textual errors corrected; sheets with the varying states were bound at random and the points do not have bearing on priority of issue.

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