DICKENS, Charles. A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being A Ghost Story of Christmas. (1843 - FIRST EDITION - SECOND ISSUE)

AUTHOR: DICKENS, Charles. 

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

PUBLISHER: London: Chapman & Hall, 1843.

DESCRIPTION: FIRST EDITION SECOND ISSUE. 1 vol., "Stave One" as the first chapter heading, title-page printed in red and blue, hand colored frontispiece & 3 plates by John Leech. Bound in full contemporary polished tan calf, ribbed gilt decorated spine, gilt lettered red and green spine labels, covers triple ruled in gilt, gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, the original cloth covers and spine bound in the rear, by Morrell.

CONDITION: Internally clean and bright, inner and outer hinges fine, head and foot of spine fine, a VERY GOOD clean copy.

ADDITIONAL INORMATION: Regarded as Dicken's most widely read novel and considered to be "the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language" (Eckel p. 116) selling more than 6000 copies in the few days leading up to Christmas.  The work was extravagantly costly as Dickens for the first time (and incidentally his last) used color in the title-page and etchings as he wanted to make the book a beautiful gift and to be a celebration of the Christmas spirit.  After the initial success, Dickens continued the series throughout the 1840's, maintaining "the Carol" philosophy to "strike a sledgehammer blow" for the poor, uneducated, and repressed.