The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.

DICKENS, Charles.

Item Number: 95086

London: Chapman and Hall, 1839.

First edition in book form of one of Dickens’ most popular novels. Octavo, bound in three quarters morocco over marbled boards, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, with the steel-engraved frontispiece portrait of Dickens after the painting by David Maclise and engraved plate entitled “Specimen of the Illustrations of Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist present, illustrated with 39 etchings by Hablot Knight Browne (“Phiz”) including plates 1-4 in the earliest states with the publisher’s imprint, plate 29 in the fourth state, and with “latter” for “letter” on p.160 (Hatton & Cleaver pp.131-160; Smith I:5). From the library of Peggy and Steve Fossett with their bookplate to the pastedown. American businessman and record-setting aviator Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in 2002 in his 10-story high balloon Spirit of Freedom. He completed the 2002 trip in 13 days, 8 hours, and 33 minutes and set records for both the Longest Distance Flown Solo in a Balloon and Fastest Balloon Flight Around the World. In very good condition with some toning throughout.

The plot, the characters, the dialogue, everything about Nicholas Nickleby "has the feel of theatre; it is as if Dickens saw human life conducted among lights of the stage, making it somehow larger and brighter than the reality" (Ackroyd, 283).