He stipulated the following requirements: a fancy binding, blind-stamped, with gilding on the spine and front cover all edges gilded four full-page hand-colored etchings half title and title pages printed in colors of bright red and green and hand-colored green endpapers to match the green title page… However, in examining printed copies prior to publication, Dickens was disappointed with the appearance of the green titles, which turned drab, and the hand-colored green endpapers, which dusted off and smudged, and had the title page changed to red and blue, the half title to blue, the date on the title page changed from 1844 to 1843, and the endpapers changed to yellow, which did not require hand work. "Dickens decided to publish the book himself… He wanted the Carol to be a beautiful gift book and took pride in its development. "Suddenly conceived and written within a few weeks, was the first of Dickens' Christmas books (a new literary genre thus created incidentally)… it was an extraordinary achievement-the one great Christmas myth of modern literature." The publication history of A Christmas Carol is bibliographically complex. "It was a work written at the height of Dickens' great powers, which would add to his considerable fame, bring a new work to the English language, increase the festivities at Christmastime, and contain his most eloquent protest at the condition of the poor" (John Mortimer). Altogether 24 editions were issued in the original format" (Eckel, 110). A lovely set.Ī Christmas Carol "may readily be called the Bible of Christmas… It was issued about ten days before Christmas, 1843, and 6000 copies were sold on the first day… the number of reprintings have been so many that all attempts at the figures have been futile. Housed in custom chemises and slipcase.įirst editions of all five of Charles Dickens' Christmas Books-chief among them a first issue of his immortal Christmas Carol, the veritable "Bible of Christmas"-illustrated with 63 engravings, four in color, by Leech, Maclise, Stanfield, Doyle and Landseer, all books in the original gilt-decorated cloth. Small octavo, original rose and red cloths ( Carol is expertly rebacked with original spine laid down), gilt-decorated covers and spines, all edges gilt. "THE ONE GREAT CHRISTMAS MYTH OF MODERN LITERATURE": FIRST EDITIONS OF DICKENS' ILLUSTRATED CHRISTMAS BOOKS, INCLUDING A LOVELY FIRST ISSUE OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL, ALL IN ORIGINAL GILT-DECORATED CLOTHĭICKENS, Charles.
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