The Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy Tale of Home.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1846.
8vo, [viii], 174, [2] ads, pp. Finely rebound in red leather with panels of the original cloth preserved as onlays, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Binding a little tight, contents age toned in places; very good.
§ First edition, complete with half title and first state of the advertisement leaf. Dickens' third Christmas book, for which he spun a sentimental fantasy without the heavy moral message of his previous two novellas. All internal flaws noted by Smith except three which he notes only in some copies. The following not present: comma missing after Evans (pg iv), extra spacing in "lucky' (pg.79), Second letter of "Blind" in battered type (pg. 149). Smith II, 6. Item #126004
Price: $925.00