“A DEATHLESS NICHE IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME”

DICKENS, Charles. The Works. New York: Bigelow, Brown, circa 1900. Twenty volumes. Octavo, contemporary century three-quarter navy morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. $4500.

“National Library Edition” of Dickens’ works, illustrated with nearly 200 black-and-white plates, handsomely bound.

"His imaginative freshness, his deep and sincere tenderness and pity, his whole-souled humor that is seldom sharpened into wit, his superabundance of creative energy, have built a deathless niche in the temple of fame for Charles Dickens" (Kunitz & Haycraft, 184). This edition includes all of Dickens' major works—including The Pickwick Papers, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and the Christmas books, chief among them A Christmas Carol—as well as a biography by John Forster. With hundreds of black-and-white plates after the original illustrations by such artists as John Leech and "Phiz."

Interiors fine, occasional light expert restoration to handsome morocco bindings. A near-fine set.