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

SOLD
SKU:
001468

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.

CONDITION: Slight sunning to edges of covers, no previous ownership markings or bookplate, head and foot of spine with the faintest of rubbing, outer hinges fine, rear inner hinge neatly renewed, mild general overall handling, a VERY GOOD+ copy seldom encountered in this condition.

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.