The Personal History of David Copperfield Charles Dickens Other Fiction,Other Fine Bindings

This is a finely bound first edition of one of the greatest novels of the greatest Victorian novelist.The magnificent fine binding by Bayntun is full polished tan calf. The covers feature triple gilt rule borders with corner devices. The spine features raised, gilt-decorated bands and dark red calf labels title in the second compartment, author in the fourth compartment, and a narrow label at the spine heel dated "1850" - each label gilt rule bracketed and tooled. Each unlabeled spine compartment features a uniform central gilt design framed by extensive gilt bracketing and tooling. The spine ends and cover edges are gilt-hatched, as are the cover edges at the corners. The contents are bound with brown and tan silk head and tail bands, twin brown satin ribbon markers, all edges gilt, and marbled endpapers framed by gilt dentelle turn-ins. "BAYNTUN. BINDER. BATH. ENG." is stamped on the upper left corner of the front free endpaper verso. George Bayntun founded his bindery in 1894. In 1939, the year the Second World War began, Bayntun acquired the Rivière Bindery. The Bindery has been in residence on Manvers Street in Bath ever since.The first edition contents are collated complete. H. K. Browne ("Phiz") prepared 40 illustrations for this novel, including the frontispiece and vignette title page. The sole "dark plate" created for this novel ("The River" at p.482) is present, as are all of the many small misprints ("Internal flaws" per Smith I, 9., pp.76-78) with one exception; "screwed" in lieu of "screamed" at p.132, line 20.Condition is very good overall. The calf binding is clean, unfaded, and sound square and tight. Shelf presentation is excellent. The vintage calf binding inevitably shows some shelf wear to extremities and joints, but only trivial scuffs and blemishes to the boards and spines. The contents are well suited to the fine binding, quite respectable with only mild age toning, no previous ownership marks, and only mild spotting, primarily confined to the plates.English writer and social critic Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) is widely regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. David Copperfield, published at the height of Dickens celebrity, was considered to be largely autobiographical. "It isDickens'sfirst first-person novel (David as narrator calls it 'my written memory') and in it he draws, much more directly than hitherto, on events and people from his own personal life in 'a very complicated interweaving of truth and fiction'. The misery of the blacking factory days (his notes for writing the number describing little David labouring in Murdstone and Grinby's bottling factory contain the poignant phrase 'What I know so well'), the details of his career as a young journalist, and the raptures of his love forMaria Beadnellare all presented with only the lightest fictional disguise. In depicting the Micawbers and their recurrent crisesDickensdraws on the personalities and former financial problems of his parents. Although the novel's initial sales were rather lower than those ofDombey,Copperfieldreceived considerable critical acclaim and before long was widely held to be his greatest work. Undoubtedly it became for very many readers, then as now, his best-loved novel, an opinion in whichDickenshimself coincided." In an 1867 preface Dickens called David Copperfield a "favourite child" and wrote of it "Of all my books, I like this the best." As was custom with many Dickens novels, the publisher, Bradbury & Evans, originally serialized David Copperfield (in 20 numbers bound in 19 parts) between May 1849 and November 1850 before this publication as a book on 14 November 1850.Reference: Smith I, 9; ODNB