# Is "The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit" by Charles Dickens a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens (Chapman and Hall, 1844) 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. 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.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- 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
- Publisher imprint reads Chapman and Hall
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Charles Dickens |
| Publisher | Chapman and Hall |
| Year | 1844 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first appearance in book form, published by Chapman and Hall in 1844 on completion of twenty monthly parts (nineteen single… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## 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.

## 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.

## 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.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit* by Charles Dickens a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-life-and-adventures-of-martin-chuzzlewit
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.