Books

London: London: Chapman and Hall, 1839. First edition of the last of Dickens' picaresque novels. Octavo, bound in full pebbled morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, elaborate gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, all edges gilt, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, illustrated with by "Phiz" with  40 plates.  With a clipped signature of the dedicatee, Angela Burdett-Coutts laid in. The dedicatee, Angela Burdett-Coutts became one of the wealthiest women in England in 1837 when she inherited her grandfather's fortune of around £1.8 million following the death of her stepgrandmother, Harriot Beauclerk, Duchess of St Albans. She spent the majority of her wealth on scholarships, endowments, and a wide range of philanthropic causes. One of her earliest philanthropic acts was to co-found (with Charles Dickens) a home for young women who had "turned to a life of immorality" including theft and prostitution. The home was…