(London: Chapman and Hall, 1837).

VERY HANDSOME FIRST EDITION IN PERIOD BINDING.  Pickwick was issued when Dickens name was just beginning to excite the attention of prescient publishers and be recognized by readers in search of entertaining novels . The publication of PICKWICK, which ran through twenty numbers, made for all time an English classic--a book representative of its age, exhibiting the life and the ideals of an important class of English folk, on the threshold of the Victorian era.
Now, over a century and a half later, PICKWICK holds its assured place in the literature of our tongue, and, among all its author s works, seems to have the best chance of achieving what is known as immortality. The book was an improvisation. Dickens was led by his genius and by the indulgence of his jocuse fancy into picturing all the popular life which his varied experience in and out of London had made familiar to him. And it is a book that appeals throughout life--to the child and to the person of late years. (Gissing) Like others of Dickens creations, it is a masterpiece.
This is a wonderful copy in beautiful contemporary state. Item #26231

First edition. Engraved frontispiece and title-page and with a plethora of engraved illustrations by R. Seymour and H. K. Browne,  Phiz . 8vo, very handsomely bound in contemporary 3/4 dark wine morocco over marbled boards, the covers with gilt rules, the spine very beautifully decorated with wide raised bands elaborately gilt tooled and border with double gilt fillet lines, head and tail caps with gilt rolls, one compartment lettered in gilt. xiv, 609 pp. A very attractive copy, especially well preserved and in lovely condition.