Case 15
- Charles Dickens 3
Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1855-57. 20 volumes in 19; Vol. 19-20 displayed.
Many of Dickens’ novels were first published as monthly magazines, with Dickens writing each instalment as it was due. Each issue is made up of a blue (or sometimes green) illustrated wrapper, pages of advertisements, two or three engraved illustrations, and a couple of chapters of the story.
Once complete, the subscriber would take the set to their preferred bookbinder and have them bound into book form, the binder removing the wrappers and advertisements and inserting the illustrations into the correct place in the text. Dickens worked closely with the cover illustrator to show scenes from the whole story, most of events for which Dickens had an idea but had not actually written yet.
Little Dorrit was issued in 20 parts (published as 19) from December 1855 to June 1857. Displayed here is the final, double instalment. The set was donated by A.H. Reed in 1952.
Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1855-57. 20 volumes in 19; Vol. 19-20 displayed.
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Charles Dickens. The mystery of Edwin Drood. London: Chapman & Hall, 1870. 6 volumes; Vol. 5 displayed.
Dickens’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a novel in the ‘sensation’ genre, was left unfinished at Dickens’s death on 8 June 1870. Three numbers had been published and another three almost completed. Supplying a conclusion to The Mystery of Edwin Drood has occupied writers from the time of Dickens's death to the present day.
Displayed here is the fifth volume of the novel in the original parts, issued in August 1870, after Dickens’s death.
Charles Dickens. The mystery of Edwin Drood. London: Chapman & Hall, 1870. 6 volumes; Vol. 5 displayed.
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Charles Dickens. The mystery of Edwin Drood. London: Chapman & Hall, 1870.
Dickens’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a novel in the ‘sensation’ genre, was left unfinished at Dickens’s death on 8 June 1870. Three numbers had been published and another three almost completed. Supplying a conclusion to The Mystery of Edwin Drood has occupied writers from the time of Dickens's death to the present day.
Displayed here is a first edition in book form, in its original publisher’s binding.
The Dickensian. London: Chapman & Hall for the Dickens Fellowship, 1905-. Vol 1 (1905) displayed.
The Dickensian is the magazine of the ‘Dickens Fellowship’, a society set up in 1902 for people passionate about Dickens, his life, and his work. Descendants of Dickens have played an active role in its membership. Its headquarters and the Dickens Museum are located in London at 48 Doughty Street, where Dickens once lived and wrote most of Oliver Twist.
At its height the Fellowship had many branches worldwide, including one in Dunedin of which A.H. Reed was a member. Today New Zealand still has one active branch based in Christchurch.
The issues of The Dickensian up to 1948 formed part of Reed’s original gift. The Reed Collection holds the only complete run in New Zealand of The Dickensian from its first issue in 1905 to the present.
The Dickensian. London: Chapman & Hall for the Dickens Fellowship, 1905-. Vol 1 (1905) displayed.
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