The Mystery of Edwin Drood DICKENS, Charles

First edition in book form, later issue. Frontispiece portrait of Dickens ("Engraved by J.H. Baker, from a Photograph taken in 1868, by Mason & Co."), steel-engraved vignette title by J. Brown, and twelve illustrations by S.L. Fildes, and a portrait. Octavo. 191pp., 30pp. containing "Catalogue of New and Second-Hand Books, offered by Reduced Prices by W.H. Smith & Son" dated "May 1872", [8]pp. advertisements. Decorative green cloth stamped in black and gilt, rear board blind-stamped, coated yellow endpapers. Embossed stamp of "W.H. Smith & Son, Strand, London" and small pertinent label tipped in onto the front free endpaper. Single illustrated page coming loose, faint scattered foxing on pages, front hinge cracked with archival tape on front fly verso, spine ends and corners worn with some fraying, else a very good copy from the Otto Orren Fisher collection with decorative bookplate on front fly verso. Otto Orren Fisher was a nationally renowned collector of rare books and manuscripts. Dickens' final novel which appeared as stories originally published in six monthly parts from April-September, 1870. He only finished six installments of the originally planned twelve, but he died before completion.