Bleak House.

DICKENS, Charles (1812-1870), [BROWNE, Hablot Knight, illustrator].

London: Bradbury and Evans, 1853. [Crime Fiction] FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. Octavo (22 x 15cm), pp.xvi; 624 [2]. Typographical errors present in the first issue: p.19, line 6, 'elgble'; p.209, line 23, 'chair' instead of 'hair; and p.275, line 22, 'counsinship' instead of 'cousinship'. Lacks the half-title. With 40 engraved illustrations by H.K. Browne, including a frontispiece and vignette title page. Brown half morocco, marbled paper over boards, four raised bands, gilt titles and trim, marbled edges and endpapers. Discreet ownership to pastedown (1950). Text leaves clean, browning to margins of plates (as usual), especially title and frontispiece. Paper sides worn, extremities rubbed. Very good. Although many of Dickens most famous works are crawling with crime, it is just this title that can be firmly placed in the murder mystery category. 'Bleak House' is essentially a classic whodunit, professionally solved, which became only the second entry (after Poe's 'Tales') in the Haycraft-Queen cornerstone list of crime fiction. Dickens returned to crime fiction for his highly-rated final story, the 'Mystery of Edwin Drood' but this was unfinished and the case unsolved... Within 'Bleak House' the author experiments with dual narrators and the story ranges from the dark and filthy Victorian slums to the landed aristocracy; Inspector Bucket is one of the earliest detectives to appear in fiction and was probably based on C.K. Field of the recently formed Scotland Yard. An essential mystery novel. Item #66461

Price: £475.00