Books

1848. London: Chapman and Hall, 1848. 8vo, [viii], 188 pp. with advert leaf, frontispiece, vignette title page, and 15 other in-text illustrations. Publisher's red cloth stamped in gilt and blind. Old subtle repair to backstrip ends, cloth over lower hinge with split. Contemporary gift inscription on front free endpaper. § First edition of the fifth and final Christmas book by Dickens in which he returns to his original theme of a misanthrope reformed through supernatural intervention at Christmastime. Smith II:9. All internal flaws noted by Smith present except the high "E" in Extraordinary (p.iv) and battered '1' in p. 166 pagination (both noted by Smith in only some copies).

The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, a Christmas novella by Charles Dickens, was published in 1848. It follows the story of Professor Redlaw who is haunted by a ghost that offers to erase his memories of sorrow and grief.