DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870), editor. Hard Times. For These Times. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1854.

8vo (191 x 122 mm). Half-title. (Some occasional light spotting.) Original green moiré horizontally-ribbed blind-stamped cloth, spine lettered in gilt (spine sunned, a touch of wear and staining, hinges just starting). Provenance: Walter Pearce Howard Gripp (signature, June 1896).

FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM, IN THE FIRST BINDING with the gilt-lettered price at the foot of the spine. With all the internal flaws of the specified Smith except for the following: the spacing in the second "she" is correct in the last line of p.122; the spacing in "long" on p. 231 is correct (2 lines up); "2" is present in the pagination on p. 244. Hard Times, Dickens's tenth novel, was first serialized in Household Words in 1854. One of 2 novels by Dickens without illustrations, the other being Great Expectations. Sadleir 689; Smith I:11; Yale/Gimbel A136.

[With:] DICKENS, Charles. Bleak House. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1853. 2 volumes, 12mo (181 x 120 mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Dickens by T. Phillibrowne after D. Maclise, with tissue guard, and 35 wood-engraved plates by Lossing-Barritt after H. K. Browne ("Phiz") of 37 (lacking plates "Attorney and Client, Fortitude and Impatience" and "Sunset in the Long Drawing-Room at Chesney Wold"). (Lacking vol. I dedication leaf and 4pp. publisher's advertisements at the end of vol. II, plates toned, some minor spotting and offsetting, a few short marginal tears not affecting text.) 19th-century half black morocco gilt, edges sprinkled red (slight soiling, hinges starting, some wear to extremities). FIRST AMERICAN EDITION IN BOOK FORM, with continuous chapter numbering and pagination, but with separate title-pages for both volumes. Yale/Gimbel A133.

DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870), editor. Hard Times. For These Times. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1854.

DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870), editor. Hard Times. For These Times. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1854.