Dombey and Son.

DICKENS, Charles.

Item Number: 121387

London: Bradbury and Evans, 1848.

First edition in book form of Dickens’ novel of “Pride,” with 40 etchings by Hablôt Knight Browne (“Phiz”). Octavo, bound in full morocco by Bayntun, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised bands, gilt medallion portrait of Dickens on the front panel, gilt signature on the back panel, inner dentelles, gilt ruled to the front and rear panels, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. With 40 engraved plates including frontispiece and engraved title by H. K. Browne. In fine condition. An exceptional presentation.

Dombey and Son "was well received by its readers, and is considered to be the first novel that reflects Dickens's artistic maturity… Dickens told his first biographer, 'It was to do with Pride what its predecessor [Martin Chuzzlewit] has done with Selfishness" (Schlicke, 280). The work "has a sense of the numinous, is more profoundly touched by the sense of last things, than any of Dickens' previous novels. It is larger in conception, so that human life is seen in terms of its beginning and its end, so that grief and forgiveness become more powerful forces within it… Dickens is aware of its status as art and provides here a simulacrum of human life touched by majesty and purpose" (Ackroyd, 526). The original serials contain the first of Browne's "dark plates" ("On the dark Road," in part 18), created by the engraver's lining machine and roulettes that tint the etched plate, creating heightened contrast (Johannsen, Phiz, 309).