Books

First one-volume edition of the author's second novel, the first appearance of the definitive text, revised by Dickens from the prior three-volume edition. This copy comes from the library of William Foyle and is in an attractive Samuel Tout binding. Oliver Twist was first published serially between February 1837 and April 1839 in Bentley's Miscellany and then as a three-volume book by Richard Bentley in 1838. This single volume was substantially revised by Dickens, who had bought back his copyright from Bentley. His revisions offer a more dramatic rendering of the text, in light of his subsequent experience of the novel's public readings. The one-volume edition was issued in ten monthly parts from January to October 1846, and in the present form on completion. This edition is scarcer than the preceding three-volume edition: "many collectors prize this edition very highly and consequently it is the more valuable of the Oliver Twists" (Eckel, p. 62). From 1868 to 1879, Samuel Tout (1841-1902) bound books in Soho, London. He then worked in Whitechapel with William Coward, continuing on his own after 1880. Tout was also an early member of the staff of Karslake's Hampstead Bindery, which opened in Charing Cross in 1898. Provenance: though unmarked as such, this copy comes from the collection of William Foyle (1883-1963), the co-founder of the eponymous chain of booksellers. Foyle's grandson acquired a substantial portion of the original collection at the First one-volume edition of the author's second novel, the first appearance of the definitive text, revised by Dickens from the prior three-volume edition. This copy comes from the library of William Foyle and is in an attractive Samuel Tout binding. Oliver Twist was first published serially between February 1837 and April 1839 in Bentley's Miscellany and then as a three-volume book by Richard Bentley in 1838. This single volume was substantially revised by Dickens, who had bought back his copyright from Bentley. His revisions offer a more dramatic rendering of the text, in light of his subsequent experience of the novel's public readings. The one-volume edition was issued in ten monthly parts from January to October 1846, and in the present form on completion. This edition is scarcer than the preceding three-volume edition: "many collectors prize this edition very highly and consequently it is the more valuable of the Oliver Twists" (Eckel, p. 62). From 1868 to 1879, Samuel Tout (1841-1902) bound books in Soho, London. He then worked in Whitechapel with William Coward, continuing on his own after 1880. Tout was also an early member of the staff of Karslake's Hampstead Bindery, which opened in Charing Cross in 1898. Provenance: though unmarked as such, this copy comes from the collection of William Foyle (1883-1963), the co-founder of the eponymous chain of booksellers. Foyle's grandson acquired a substantial portion of the original collection at the landmark Foyle Library sale in 2000, including the present copy. READ MORE Octavo (208 x 129 mm). Late 19th-century brown half morocco by Tout, spine with raised bands forming six compartments lettered and ruled in gilt, marbled paper sides and endpapers, all edges gilt, green silk bookmarker. With 24 steel-engraved plates by George Cruikshank. With 19th-century armorial bookplate of Daniel Drew (1850-1914) of Burnley on the front pastedown. Bound without the half-title. Light rubbing, faint sunning to spine, minor foxing to endpapers and outer leaves, slight browning to content margins, faint offsetting from plates to several leaves: a very good copy. Eckel, pp. 59-63; Gimbel A39; Kremers, pp. 90-3 & 188-95.

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.