DICKENS, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Being A Ghost Story of Christmas. (THIRD EDITION - 1843)

AUTHOR: DICKENS, Charles. 

TITLE: A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being A Ghost Story of Christmas.

PUBLISHER: London: Chapman &  Hall, 1843.

DESCRIPTION: THIRD EDITION. 1 vol., "Stave One" as the first chapter heading, title-page printed in red and blue, frontispiece & 3 plates by John Leech hand colored. Bound in the original mauve cloth, yellow pastedowns and endpapers, all edges gilt, small neat ownership signature to front pastedown dated 1844.

CONDITION: Internally clean and bright, one signature slightly askew, head and foot of spine fine, inner hinges starting, outer hinges fine, back corners still square a few minor spots to rear cover, spine ever so slightly sunned, otherwise completely un-restored, AN UNUSUALLY BRIGHT CLEAN CLOTH COPY.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: This was the last edition published in the same year as the original issue, which was done on Christmas eve. By the end of the next year (1844) 13 editions had been printed. 

According to John Eckel, "A Christmas Carol" was published on December 19th, 1843 and sold 6,000 copies on the first day. Before the end of the year, eleven days later, it was in the third edition, with the combined number of copies of the second and third editions being estimated at only two to three thousand copies. This means that the second and third editions were at least two to three times scarcer than the first.