Books

London: Richard Bentley, 1839. Early edition of Dickens' classic “novel of crime and terror” (Baugh et al). Octavo, three volumes bound in full red crushed levant morocco, gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, triple gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, illustrated with 24 plates by George Cruikshank. In very good condition. Ownership inscription. An attractive binding. From the jollity of The Pickwick Papers (1836-37), “Dickens turned in Oliver Twist to the novel of crime and terror… Some characters are drawn with humorous realism, but for the most part humor is dimmed by gloomy memories of the author’s own neglected childhood and sensational scenes are shrouded in an atmosphere genuinely eerie and sinister… That Dickens shared with his contemporaries the conviction that the novel should be an instrument of social reform is evident in Oliver Twist”…

Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy's Progress is Charles Dickens's second novel, and was first published as a serial from 1837 to 1839. The story centers on orphan Oliver Twist, born in a workhouse and sold into apprenticeship with an undertaker. After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the 'Artful Dodger', a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal Fagin.