Books

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, elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, with the steel-engraved frontispiece portrait of Dickens in the first state, first four plates in later state without imprint, page 123 with "sister" (2d state) & page 160 with "letter" (2d state). Smith I:5; Eckel, p. 64. In very good condition. 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).

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby is a novel by Charles Dickens. Originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839, it was Dickens's third novel. The lengthy work follows the life of Nicholas Nickleby, a young man who must support his mother and sister after his father dies.