Dombey and Son -
Charles DIckens, Hablot Knight Browne (illustrator)
1848 - Bradbury and Evans, London - First Edition
A handsomely bound first edition, Illustrated throughout with 39 engraved plates and engraved title page vignette by Hablot Knight Browne aka ‘Phiz’.
‘Dombey and Son is both a firm and a family and the ambiguous connection between public and private life lies at the heart of Dickens' novel. Paul Dombey is a man who runs his domestic affairs as he runs his business: calculatingly, callously, coldly and commercially.
Through his dysfunctional relationships with his son, his two wives, and his neglected daughter Florence, Dickens paints a vivid picture of the limitations of a society dominated by commercial values and the drive for profit and explores the possibility of moral and emotional redemption through familial love.’ First edition in book form. With the following first state points (see Smith) - no page entry for frontispiece and vignette; Cuttle's hook on his left hand in title page vignette; p. xv line 3 no quotation marks around ‘the Party’; p.14 10 lines up ‘aint’ without apostrophe; p. 26 line 11 ‘fidgetty’ instead of ‘fidgety’; p.40 ’shewed’ and ‘shew’ instead of ‘showed’ and ‘show’ (lines 16 & 17); p.284 line 47, ‘Delight’ instead of ‘Joy’; p.324, final line ‘Capatin’ instead of ‘Captain’; p.582 no period at the end of the last line.
Reference: Walter Smith, Charles Dickens in the Original Cloth, I, 8. Penguin Classics.
Thick octavo (binding size 21x14.5cm), pp. [1] xi-xvi [2] 624 [4]. Finely bound by Frost and Co. of Bath, in full red niger morocco goatskin, twin gilt line bordered panels, spine decorated with single and twin gilt filet compartments, with gilt motifs and lettering, tooled edges, bands, and gilt ruled turn-ins, hand-marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Condition: Near fine, light scattered foxing to plates as commonly encountered, in fine binding. Ref: 112321 Price: HK$ 10,000
‘Dombey and Son is both a firm and a family and the ambiguous connection between public and private life lies at the heart of Dickens' novel. Paul Dombey is a man who runs his domestic affairs as he runs his business: calculatingly, callously, coldly and commercially.
Through his dysfunctional relationships with his son, his two wives, and his neglected daughter Florence, Dickens paints a vivid picture of the limitations of a society dominated by commercial values and the drive for profit and explores the possibility of moral and emotional redemption through familial love.’ First edition in book form. With the following first state points (see Smith) - no page entry for frontispiece and vignette; Cuttle's hook on his left hand in title page vignette; p. xv line 3 no quotation marks around ‘the Party’; p.14 10 lines up ‘aint’ without apostrophe; p. 26 line 11 ‘fidgetty’ instead of ‘fidgety’; p.40 ’shewed’ and ‘shew’ instead of ‘showed’ and ‘show’ (lines 16 & 17); p.284 line 47, ‘Delight’ instead of ‘Joy’; p.324, final line ‘Capatin’ instead of ‘Captain’; p.582 no period at the end of the last line.
Reference: Walter Smith, Charles Dickens in the Original Cloth, I, 8. Penguin Classics.
Thick octavo (binding size 21x14.5cm), pp. [1] xi-xvi [2] 624 [4]. Finely bound by Frost and Co. of Bath, in full red niger morocco goatskin, twin gilt line bordered panels, spine decorated with single and twin gilt filet compartments, with gilt motifs and lettering, tooled edges, bands, and gilt ruled turn-ins, hand-marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Condition: Near fine, light scattered foxing to plates as commonly encountered, in fine binding. Ref: 112321 Price: HK$ 10,000