Item #2307014 The Life & Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (The Oxford Library of Charles Dickens). Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Russell.

The Life & Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (The Oxford Library of Charles Dickens)

New York / Franklin Center, Pennsylvania: Oxford University Press / The Franklin Library, 1984. Phiz [Browne, Hablot Knight]. Limited Edition. Full-Leather. Near Fine / No Jacket. Item #2307014

One of 7500 copies. Spine faded.

xxx, 882 pp. Full red leather with navy blue leather onlays, gilt titles and decorations, all edges gilt, silk moire endpapers, ribbon marker bound in. Includes forty illustrations by Phiz, and an introduction by Geoffrey Russell. "The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (commonly known as Martin Chuzzlewit) is a novel by Charles Dickens, considered the last of his picaresque novels. It was originally serialised between 1842 and 1844. While he was writing it Dickens told a friend that he thought it was his best work,[1] but it was one of his least popular novels.[2] The late nineteenth century English novelist George Gissing read the novel in February 1888 "for refreshment" but felt that it showed "incomprehensible weakness of story".[3] Like nearly all of Dickens's novels, Martin Chuzzlewit was first published in monthly instalments. Early sales of the monthly parts were disappointing, compared to previous works, so Dickens changed the plot to send the title character to the United States.[4] This allowed the author to portray the United States, which he had visited in 1842, satirically, as a near-wilderness with pockets of civilisation filled with deceitful and self-promoting hucksters. The main theme of the novel, according to Dickens's preface, is selfishness, portrayed in a satirical fashion using all the members of the Chuzzlewit family. The novel is also notable for two of Dickens's great villains, Seth Pecksniff and Jonas Chuzzlewit. It is dedicated to Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, a friend of Dickens's."

Price: $125.00

See all items in Decorative Binding, Literature
See all items by ,