Charles Dickens First Editions

• Sketches by Boz — 1836 · John Macrone, LondonTwo separately published series, both John Macrone, London, both 12mo, both illustrated by George Cruikshank; a complete first edition is three volumes. First Series: two volumes, February 1836 — 'Sketches by "Boz," Illustrative of Every-Day Life, and Every-Day People' — with two etched frontispieces and 14 plates; original dark olive-green embossed leaf-pattern (seaweed-grain) cloth, spines gilt with a…. The census claim is confirmed. This is Dickens's true first book: the Macrone First Series of February 1836 precedes the first number of The Pickwick Papers (March 1836). There is no UK-vs-US or foreign-language precedence question. Note the date conflict in the record: Wikipedia dates the Second Series to August 1836, but this is contradicted by the auction and dealer record — the 20pp. of publisher's…. No book club edition. The 'first thus' traps are the reissues, and they are the books most people actually encounter. Macrone's own second edition of the First Series (1836) adds a new preface — an added preface is the tell. More consequentially, Chapman & Hall reissued the Sketches in twenty monthly parts, 1837-39, with new Cruikshank plates and a new vignette title, and sold the collected result from 1839 as….
• The Pickwick Papers (The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club) — 1836-1837 · Chapman & HallTrue first is the 20 (in 19) monthly parts in printed wrappers, April 1836 to November 1837. Robert Seymour illustrated Part I (four plates) before his death by suicide after the first number; R. W. Buss illustrated Part III on an interim basis (two plates) before being replaced; Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') then took over for the remainder, his early plates signed 'Nemo' (his pseudonym before 'Phiz') in Part IV.…. The original parts are the true first and are prized over the 1837 bound volume. Plate states across the Seymour/Buss/Phiz succession govern the points; mixed-plate and made-up sets are common. Countless later one-volume reprints exist; any single bound volume dated after 1837, or lacking the Phiz plates, is not the part-issue first.
• Oliver Twist — 1838 · Richard BentleyThree volumes, published as 'by Boz', with 24 etched plates by George Cruikshank. The central plate point concerns the final plate in volume III: the FIRST issue has the 'Fireside' plate (which Dickens disliked), and it was SUPPRESSED and replaced by the 'Church' plate in the reissue printed days later. The first issue therefore has the 'Fireside' plate, not the 'Church' plate. First-issue title pages read 'by…. The 1838 UK three-volume first ('by Boz') precedes the US edition. The two distinguishing points are the 'Fireside' (first) versus 'Church' (replacement) plate in volume III and the 'Boz' versus 'Charles Dickens' title-page attribution. Later single-volume editions and any naming Dickens on the title page are not the 1838 first issue; the 'Church' plate marks the later state.
• The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby — 1839 · Chapman and HallFirst edition, first printing in book form, published 23 October 1839 by Chapman and Hall on completion of twenty monthly numbers (nineteen single parts plus a concluding double number) issued from April 1838. Single-volume octavo (approximately 220 x 135mm) with a half title, an engraved portrait frontispiece by Daniel Maclise, and 39 plates by 'Phiz' (Hablot K. Browne); in the earliest state, the frontispiece…. Nicholas Nickleby first appeared in twenty monthly numbers issued in wrappers (April 1838-October 1839); that parts issue precedes this single-volume first edition in book form. Chapman and Hall's later Cheap Edition reset the text in a smaller, double-column format with different, fewer illustrations, readily distinguished from the full-page-plate first edition.
• The Old Curiosity Shop / Dickens in parts — 1840-1841 · Chapman and HallFor Dickens issued in monthly parts (e.g., this and 'David Copperfield', 'Bleak House'): true first is the original monthly parts in printed wrappers WITH the inserted advertisements ('Dickens advertiser') in the correct states, complete plates by the correct etcher state, and the part-wrappers intact. The part-issue in original wrappers with all ads present precedes the bound first edition; complete sets of parts with correct ad states are the landmark and far scarcer than the bound book. The bound first edition lacks the part-wrappers and ads; reading copies and reprints lack the plate states. Missing or facsimile ads/wrappers are the tell.
• Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty — 1841 · Chapman and HallFirst separate edition, large octavo, collated (v-vi, iv), (229)-306, 420 pp., with the two-page preface bound in before the title page; the unusual pagination reflects the fact that this edition was bound up from the original Master Humphrey's Clock sheets, retaining that periodical's page numbering (continuing Volume II's sequence to page 306, then restarting at Volume III) rather than being freshly reset.…. The Master Humphrey's Clock installments (February-November 1841) preceded this separate one-volume book issue; a three-volume Master Humphrey's Clock edition collecting both Barnaby Rudge and The Old Curiosity Shop together was also issued and is a distinct bibliographic item from the separate Barnaby Rudge volume. Chapman and Hall's later Cheap Edition reset the text in a smaller, double-column format with different, fewer illustrations, readily distinguished from the large-octavo first edition and its Cattermole/Browne plates.
• A Christmas Carol — 1843 · Chapman and HallFirst edition, first issue (Chapman & Hall, London, 1843): title page printed in red and blue and dated 1843; half-title printed in BLUE (not yellow); the first chapter heading reads 'STAVE I' (later issues read 'STAVE ONE'); four hand-coloured steel-engraved plates plus wood-engravings by John Leech; bound in reddish-brown (terracotta) ribbed cloth with a gilt wreath vignette on the upper cover and gilt spine.…. The London Chapman & Hall 1843 is the true first. The dependable first-issue tells are Todd's binding points (border-to-wreath 14–15 mm; unbroken 'D' in 'Dickens'), the red-and-blue title page, the blue half-title, and 'STAVE I'. Endpaper colour (green vs yellow) is famously disputed and is not a safe stand-alone point. Later issues/editions reset the text, change the chapter heading to 'STAVE ONE', and are found with a red-and-green title page and green half-title; book-club facsimiles are common. A red-and-blue title page with a BLUE half-title, 'STAVE I', and the tight (14–15 mm) wreath spacing is the first-issue combination — not the endpaper colour.
• The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit — 1844 · Chapman and HallFirst edition, first appearance in book form, published by Chapman and Hall in 1844 on completion of twenty monthly parts (nineteen single parts plus a concluding double number) issued from January 1843 to July 1844. The volume comprises an engraved frontispiece, an etched vignette title page, and 38 further plates by 'Phiz' (Hablot K. Browne), forty illustrations in all; the preface is dated 'twenty-fifth June,…. Martin Chuzzlewit first appeared in twenty monthly parts (nineteen singles plus a concluding double number) issued January 1843-July 1844; that parts issue precedes this first edition in book form. Chapman and Hall's 1850 Cheap Edition reset the text in a smaller, double-column format with a new frontispiece after a drawing by Frank Stone, in place of Phiz's original plates.
• The Chimes: A Goblin Story — 1845 · Chapman and HallFirst edition, published 16 December 1844 though the title page is postdated 1845. The first state is identified by the publisher's imprint 'CHAPMAN & HALL' printed within the bottom edge of the vignette title-page illustration, above the artist's and engraver's names; a later second issue instead shows 'Chapman and Hall' printed outside the border of the engraved vignette. First-edition copies carry a….
• Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son — 1846 · Bradbury and Evans, LondonTHE TRUE FIRST IS THE PART-ISSUE: twenty numbers in nineteen monthly parts (the last a double number), Bradbury and Evans, London, October 1846 - April 1848, in the publisher's blue paper wrappers. Hatton and Cleaver (pp. 227-250) is the reference of record for the wrappers, inserted advertisements and slips each part must carry; a set should be collated against it. A twelve-line errata slip in Part V is treated…. The census claim is confirmed but needs its framing tightened. The precedence question here is not UK-vs-US or original-language; it is parts-vs-book, and both are Bradbury and Evans, London. The twenty monthly numbers (October 1846 - April 1848) precede and are the true first; the 12 April 1848 volume is correctly described as the first edition in book form, not simply 'the first edition'. Both are separately…. Pre-dates book clubs. The specific tells: copies bound up from the monthly parts lack the half-title, the list of plates and the errata leaf, and are not the book-form first despite carrying the 1848 title page. Made-up sets in parts — assembled from odd numbers with facsimile wrappers, restored spines, or the wrong inserted advertisements — are the standing hazard, which is why collation against Hatton and….
• The Battle of Life: A Love Story — 1846 · Bradbury and EvansFirst edition, existing in four sequential engraved-title-page states within the same 1846 printing, catalogued by Smith. The first state has the words 'A Love Story' simply printed with no embellishment; the second state adds a banner or scroll around the lettering; the third state elaborates further with the banner carried by an angel/cupid figure; the fourth state repeats the third state's design but lacks the….
• The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home — 1846 · Bradbury and Evans, LondonFirst edition, third of the five Christmas Books; title-page dated 1846 but published 20 December 1845 and sold out before the new year. Imprint reads Bradbury and Evans FOR THE AUTHOR. Collation runs [viii], 174, [2] advertisements. Fourteen illustrations by John Leech, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield, Daniel Maclise and Edwin Landseer; the engraved frontispiece and additional pictorial title are after…. The census claim is correct and needs no correction: Bradbury and Evans, London, title dated 1846, issued December 1845, and it is indeed the third of the five Christmas Books, completing the set with The Haunted Man alongside A Christmas Carol, The Chimes and The Battle of Life. Note only that the imprint is 'for the author' - Dickens retained the publishing risk on the Christmas Books - and that the full title…. No book-club issue at this date. The live trap is the advertisement-leaf state: dealers routinely offer second-issue copies (three-line italic headline) as plain 'first edition' - correct as to edition, but the second issue, and Jarndyce catalogs such copies explicitly as 'FIRST EDITION, 2nd issue'. Copies lacking the terminal advertisement leaf altogether cannot be placed by this point. The book went through….
• Dombey and Son — 1848 · Bradbury and Evans, London'Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation.' London: Bradbury and Evans, 1848. Illustrated by Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz'): frontispiece, vignette title and 38 plates in the volume, with the preface dated March 1848. Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt; a primary/secondary cloth distinction is recognised, and the half-title and the errata leaf should be present. The…. Bradbury and Evans, London is right, but the census's arithmetic needs correcting. The serial precedes the book and is the true first appearance: twenty numbers issued in nineteen monthly parts, October 1846 to April 1848 — the final instalment of April 1848 is the double number XIX/XX — in the original printed pictorial wrappers with the Dombey & Son Advertiser. Hatton and Cleaver is the authority for the…. No book club edition for an 1848 Dickens. The reprint field is where the difficulty sits: Bradbury and Evans reprinted from the same setting, and the Chapman & Hall Cheap, Library and Charles Dickens editions followed, so an 1848 date on the title page is necessary and not sufficient — the vignette-title hook and the p. 284 and p. 324 readings are what separate the first issue. Sets of the parts are routinely….
• The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain — 1848 · Bradbury and Evans, LondonTitle page dated 1848; published 19 December 1848. First edition, first issue collates [8], 188 pp, 8vo (approx. 165 x 103 mm), with an advertisement leaf preceding the engraved frontispiece and engraved vignette title on toned grounds, and 17 illustrations after John Tenniel, John Leech, Frank Stone and Clarkson Stanfield. Eckel (p. 131) records the only identifiable issue point: the first page numeral on p. 166…. The census claim is correct: Bradbury and Evans, London, 1848 is the true first, the fifth and last of the five Christmas Books. Two precedence traps. First, Bernh. Tauchnitz Jun., Leipzig, issued a 'Copyright Edition' reported by L.W. Currey to have been published simultaneously with the London edition on 19 December 1848 — catalogued as the first European (Continental) edition, so lettered on its title; only…. No book-club issue exists for an 1848 Dickens imprint. The documented reprint and confusion tells are the simultaneous Tauchnitz Leipzig 'Copyright Edition' (identified by its Leipzig imprint and 'Copyright Edition' title-page wording), the first American edition of 6 January 1849, and later Victorian reprints that retain the original wood-engraved illustrations. No other issue points beyond the p. 166 numeral….
• David Copperfield — 1849-1850 · Bradbury & EvansTrue first is the 20 (in 19) monthly parts in printed wrappers with Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') plates, May 1849 to November 1850. Part-issue points center on the plate states and the advertisement inserts bound into the individual parts. The 1850 first one-volume book edition has the Phiz plates and the dedication; pure parts in wrappers are far scarcer than the bound volume. The UK parts are the true first, preceding the bound volume. Original parts in wrappers are valued well above bound copies. Single bound volumes and later reprints are not the part issue.
• Bleak House — 1852-1853 · Bradbury & EvansTrue first is the 20 (in 19) monthly parts in printed wrappers with Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz') plates, March 1852 to September 1853. A notable feature of the illustrations is the group of 'dark plates' (Phiz's machine-ruled etchings producing deep tonal effects). Part-issue points involve the plate states and the advertisement inserts in the parts. The one-volume first book edition followed in 1853. The UK parts are the true first. The 'dark plates' are a recognized feature of the Phiz illustrations for this title. Later single-volume reprints are not the part issue.
• Hard Times. For These Times — 1854 · Bradbury and Evans, LondonFirst edition in book form, one volume, published 7 August 1854; Hard Times and Great Expectations are the only Dickens novels issued without illustrations. The publisher's primary binding (first of four recorded binding states) is horizontally-ribbed olive-green moire cloth, covers with blind-stamped double-rule and internal ornamental rectangular frame, spine lettered in gilt with blind decoration and reading…. The census claim is correct as to publisher and year but should be stated precisely: the true first APPEARANCE is the serialization in Household Words (1 April - 12 August 1854), and uniquely among the mature novels there was no separate monthly-parts issue, so the 1854 Bradbury & Evans one-volume book IS the first edition in book form - the phrase every major catalog uses. There is a genuine Anglo-American…. No book-club issue at this date. The trap here is the later binding states and the 'first thus' American issues: the Harper cloth-bound copies are described by dealers as the second Harper edition, preceded by the McElrath and Harper wrappers editions, and are not the true first. Copies outside the horizontally-ribbed olive-green moire primary binding with 'Price 5/-' gilt at spine foot are later binding states.….
• Little Dorrit — 1855 · Bradbury and Evans, LondonTrue first is the serial issue in publisher's blue printed pictorial wrappers, 20 numbers bound as 19 monthly parts (the last a double number), December 1855 - June 1857; each part the printed price, the final double part the printed price Complete sets have an etched frontispiece, additional pictorial title and 38 plates by Hablot K. Browne ('Phiz'), including 8 'dark plates' - 40 etchings in all. The cardinal…. The census is right that the parts precede the book but mis-states the true-first year as 1857: the true first edition is the parts issue of December 1855 - June 1857, not the 1857 volume. Correct the count too - 'twenty monthly parts' is imprecise; it is 20 numbers issued in 19 monthly parts, the last being a double number (19/20). Both states are collected: (1) the 19/20 parts in original blue wrappers, and (2)…. No book-club issue at this date. The standing traps are made-up sets and rebound parts: sets lacking the Advertiser leaves and inserted slips called for by Hatton & Cleaver, parts with restored or facsimile wrappers, and volumes bound up from parts sheets after the fact. Copies with 'Blandois' reading correctly at pp. 469-473 are the later, corrected state, not the first issue. Later Chapman & Hall reissues and….
• A Tale of Two Cities — 1859 · Chapman & HallIssued in eight monthly parts (in seven, the last a double number) in printed wrappers, June to December 1859, with frontispiece, added engraved title, and plates by Phiz (Hablot K. Browne), concurrent with serialization in All the Year Round. The bound first volume (Chapman & Hall, 1859) carries the same plates. Verified textual points in the first printing: page 213 misnumbered '113', and 'affectionately'…. The original monthly parts in wrappers are the earliest book-form issue; the bound 1859 volume follows. Textual states (the '113' mispagination and the 'affetcionately' misprint) and, for the parts, the wrappers and advertisement inserts are the points. Later single-volume reprints are not the parts issue.
• Great Expectations — 1861 · Chapman & HallThree volumes, the first book edition, with no illustrations (unlike later editions) and issued in plum/purple cloth. The story first ran serially in 'All the Year Round' (December 1860 to August 1861); the three-volume book followed in 1861. The first issue is identified by its first-state title pages: the same setting of type was bound up and reissued five times in 1861 with altered title-page dating to suggest…. The UK three-decker is the true first in book form, preceding any illustrated edition. It was largely absorbed by the circulating libraries, contributing to the scarcity of clean first-issue sets. Later illustrated single-volume editions are not the first; later title-page states within 1861 are subsequent issues of the same edition.
• Our Mutual Friend — 1864 · Chapman and Hall, LondonTrue first is the serial issue in original green pictorial printed wrappers, 20 numbers bound as 19 monthly parts (the last a double number), May 1864 - November 1865. Complete sets have a wood-engraved frontispiece and 39 plates after Marcus Stone, engraved by Dalziel and W. T. Green. Two first-issue points are documented: the front wrapper of Part 1 WITHOUT the printer's imprint at the foot, and the misprint…. The census is right that the parts precede the book and right on publisher, but 'twenty monthly parts' is imprecise: 20 numbers were issued in 19 monthly parts, the last a double number. The true first is the parts issue, May 1864 - November 1865 - not the 1865 volumes; the census's true-first year should read 1864-1865. Both are collected: (1) the 19/20 parts in original green pictorial wrappers, and (2) the…. No book-club issue at this date. Traps: made-up and rebacked parts sets; sets missing the Advertiser and the inserted slips called for by Hatton & Cleaver (the 'Economic Life Assurance Society' slip in parts 14 and 19/20 is notably rare); and Part 1 wrappers WITH the printer's imprint at foot, which are the later state. Copies reading 'principal' correctly at p. 115 are the corrected state. Two-volume sets….
• The Mystery of Edwin Drood — 1870 · Chapman and Hall, LondonTrue first is the serial issue in publisher's blue-green pictorial wrappers, six monthly parts (all published), April - September 1870; the wrapper design is by Charles Allston Collins, Dickens's son-in-law, who withdrew through ill health after designing the cover and was replaced as illustrator by Samuel Luke Fildes. Complete sets have an engraved portrait of Dickens, an additional pictorial (vignette) title…. The census gets the story right but the precedence wrong: it lists the true first as the 1870 Chapman & Hall book. It is not. The true first is the six parts in original wrappers, April - September 1870, published before and during Dickens's death on 9 June 1870; the one-volume Chapman and Hall book edition of 1870 collects the fragment afterward and is the first edition in book form, a separate and later thing.…. No book-club issue at this date. Traps: Part VI wrappers WITHOUT the 'Eighteenpence' slip (the later state, and the great majority of copies); respined or restored wrappers; sets lacking the cork-hats slip in Part II and the Chapman & Hall advertisement in Part V. The 1870 one-volume book edition is frequently offered simply as 'first edition' - true of the book form only, not of the work. Beware also the….

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