Bleak House.

London: Chapman & Hall, 1853.

First Edition. With the extra illustrated titlepage opposite the frontispiece. Demy 8vo (22 x 15 cms); pp. xvi + 624; Etched frontispiece, vignette titlepage, and 38 plates (including the 10 "dark" plates) by Hablot Knight Browne (ie.Phiz). Extremely clean and sharp plates free any foxing with perhaps some light marginal toning in some cases, mainly to versos. Bound in contemporary black half-calf over marbled boards, gilt titles and bands to spine. Extremities of boards rubbed all over. With bookplates of Rev. Mitchell Harvey and Desomond Preston laid down to endpapers. With the three typographical errors present in the true first issue: p19, line 6, reads "elgble" instead of "eligible"; p209, line 23, reads "chair" instead of "hair"; and p275, line 22, has "counsinship" instead of "cousinship". A solid and unpretentious copy of Dickens's famous 'whodunnit' novel featuring the redoubtable Inspector Bucket. 'Writing at the height of his powers, Dickens adopts a virtuoso form of double narration, and the novel has since the middle of the twentieth century been widely acclaimed as his greatest work' (ODNB)