Is My The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit a First Edition?

The points of issue

• First 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, 1844,' and in early copies the plates facing pages 386 and 387 are bound transposed
• An errata leaf is recorded in two settings: an earlier, scarcer 13-line setting and a reset 14-line setting found in most surviving first-edition copies, both listing the same corrections
• Dealers also cite a vignette title-page state in which the reward notice on the sign-post shows the pound sign transposed to follow the sum rather than precede it, together with seven studs on the trunk lid; bibliographers Hatton and Cleaver, however, found the vignette was etched in triplicate, with two plates showing the sign correctly placed and one transposed, all three in simultaneous use throughout the parts issue, so this reading does not establish true priority within the first edition

How Chapman and Hall marked a first edition

• No edition statement on early firsts: identify by title-page date, absence of later-printing wording, and (for serialized novels) by the original part-issue versus the bound volume.
• For Dickens part-issues (Pickwick, Nicholas Nickleby, Martin Chuzzlewit, Our Mutual Friend, Edwin Drood), correct plates/etchings, advertisement slips, and wrapper states are the diagnostic points; Pickwick is the classi…

Full Chapman and Hall first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

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.P-034992

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

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.P-034993

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit a first edition?

A first edition of The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens (Chapman and Hall) is identified by: First 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.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. 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.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

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.

I have a first edition of The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.