DICKENS, Charles.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Works. Illustrated Library Edition, later impressions, comprising an attractive example of what Dickens called "the best edition of my works".Dickens's publishers launched the Library Edition of the author's works in 1858. It soon ran into problems and was "a commercial failure" (Parrott, p. 11). It then "gained a new lease of life" (Parrott, p. 12) as the Illustrated Library Edition, launched in 1861. This became "an attractive and desirable set of books which achieved acceptance and popularity on both sides of the Atlantic" (Parrott, p. 19).The original volumes were published until 1874. A new edition, with reset type and larger pages, was announced in 1873 and published until 1876. It was "bound in bottle-green cloth lettered in gilt and decorated in black". This was "reprinted in this format several times down to the 1890s but only the first printing was dated" (Parrott, p. 105).

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