The Mystery of Edwin Drood
London: Chapman & Hall, April to September 1870.
6 parts, 8vo (8 3/4 x 5 5/8 inches). Engraved portrait of Dickens by J. H. Baker and vignette title-page and 12 engraved plates by Samuel Luke Fildes. Original blue-green pictorial wrappers, uncut. In cloth folding case. The parts are generally clean but the front cover of part 1 is soiled and repaired and there is a little foxing to the lower cover of part 2. Small contemporary owners’ signatures to upper covers of parts 2 and 5. The edges of all parts are slightly worn, trimmed, and/or repaired.
FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL MONTHLY PARTS. "Edwin Drood Advertiser" at the beginning of each part. Part 1: Dr. De Jongh insert is present at end, and Henry Brett ad is in color (a detail not noted in Hatton & Cleaver); Part 2: "Cork Hat" slip is lacking, no point after “II” on upper cover (no priority); Part 3: the two illustrations are not present in ad on lower cover and the ad for “Chapman & Co’s” is duplicated; Part 4: a remainder, per Hatton & Cleaver, with 8-page “Chapman & Hall” catalogue at the end, and 2-page slip for “John F. Dunn” on yellow paper inserted before the “Edwin Drood Advertiser”; Part 5: no point after “V” on upper cover (not noted in Hatton & Cleaver as a “point”), 8-page “Chapman & Hall” catalogue is lacking; Part 6: later issue with the "eighteenpence" price printed on the front wrapper, this copy has the “Concerning Stitches” variant of the “Wilcox & Gibbs” ad at the rear. Hatton & Cleaver, pp. 373-84.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood was Dickens' last novel, left unfinished upon his death on June 9, 1870. Only six of a planned twelve installments had been written. He left no detailed plan for finishing the novel nor a solution to the novel's mystery, and many later adaptations and conclusions by other writers have attempted to complete the story. G. K. Chesterton compared “this somber half-told mystery to the performance of a dying magician making a final splendid and staggering appearance before mankind" (Johnson, p.1116).
Item #144171Price: $1,000.00