The Christmas Books: A Christmas Carol; The Chimes; The Battle of Life; Cricket on the Hearth; The Haunted Man and The Ghost’s Bargain.

DICKENS, Charles.

Item Number: 131382

London: Chapman & Hall, 1843-1848.

Rare complete first edition set of of all five of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Books including the rare first edition of A Christmas Carol. Octavo, five volumes bound in full morocco, gilt titles and tooling to the spines in six compartments within raised gilt bands, The Christmas Carol with central gilt vignette of the Fezziwig’s Ball frontispiece, the rest with central gilt portrait of Dickens or mistletoe to the front and rear panels, double gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. With the original publisher’s gilt-decorated cloth bound in at the rear of each volume. The set contains: a first edition, first issue of A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being A Ghost Story of Christmas. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843 with the half-title, hand-colored frontispiece, title-page printed in blue and red, 3 hand-colored etched plates by John Leech, “Stave I” on p.[1], 2pp. advertisements at rear, with advertisement for A Christmas Carol (see The Chimes description), original publisher’s green endpapers bound in at rear. A first edition of the Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In. London: Chapman and Hall, 1845 [1844] with the half-title, 13 illustrations including frontispiece and vignette title by Maclise, Doyle, Leech and Stanfield, second state of the vignette title, advertisement for A Christmas Carol bound into previous volume. A first edition of The Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy Tale of Home. London: Bradbury and Evans for the author, 1846 [1844] with the half-title, 14 illustrations, including frontispiece and vignette title, by Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise and Landseer, 2pp. advertisement at rear. A first edition, fourth state of The Battle of Life. A Love Story. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1846 with the half-title, 13 illustrations including frontispiece and vignette title by Maclise, Doyle, Leech and Stanfield, fourth state of the vignette title, 2pp. advertisements at rear. A first edition of The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1848. Half-title, 7 illustrations, including frontispiece and vignette title by Leech, Stanfield, Tenniel and Stone, 2pp. advertisement at rear. In fine condition. A very attractive rare complete first edition set.

A Christmas Carol "may readily be called the Bible of Christmas. It was issued about ten days before Christmas, 1843, and 6000 copies were sold on the first day. The number of reprintings have been so many that all attempts at the figures have been futile. Altogether 24 editions were issued in the original format" (Eckel, 110). "It was a work written at the height of Dickens’ great powers, which would add to his considerable fame, bring a new work to the English language, increase the festivities at Christmastime, and contain his most eloquent protest at the condition of the poor" (John Mortimer). "Suddenly conceived and written within a few weeks, [A Christmas Carol] was the first of Dickens’ Christmas books (a new literary genre thus created incidentally) it was an extraordinary achievement—the one great Christmas myth of modern literature."