"A DEATHLESS NICHE IN THE TEMPLE OF FAME"

DICKENS, Charles. The Works… With Introductions, General Essay, and Notes by Andrew Lang. London: Chapman and Hall, 1897-99. Thirty-four volumes. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter tan calf gilt, raised bands, red and green morocco spine labels, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $4000.

The Gadshill Edition of Dickens Works, illustrated with full-page steel-engraved plates from the original illustrations by various artists including Cruikshank, Phiz, Graves, and Tenniel.

"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). Dickens "in his own realm has always been unrivalled… His sleepless imagination exaggerated the comic side of everything, and developed the suggestions of reality into humorous idealisms far transcending the proportions of ordinary life" (Baker). "Printed from the edition that was carefully corrected by the author in 1867 and 1868" (Podeschi, D140). Gimbel D140.

Scattered light foxing; light wear to extremities of contemporary calf, one volume with expert repairs to joints. A handsome set.