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HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING
HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING

HARD TIMES BY CHARLES DICKENS 1854 FIRST EDITION FINE LEATHER BINDING

£500.00
Tax included.
[DICKENS, CHARLES]. Hard Times. For These Times. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1854.

First edition in book form [first issue with page 244 misnumbered as 44]. Leather-bound. Hardcover. Octavo (195 x 125 x 30mm.). Pp. viii, 352. English text. Beautifully bound in later full dark-green calf with gilt. Spine with five raised bands. Marbled endpapers. Half-title present. Condition: NEAR FINE. Binding tight and secure with the joints and hinges perfectly intact. Covers beautifully preserved. Contents largely very clean with just a few small fox spots. Without previous ownership markings. The original cloth covers have been bound in at the back of the book. An excellent and handsome copy.

Notes: First edition in book form of Dickens' attack on the living conditions of England's mid-19th century industrial cities. In near fine condition with the half-title present, which is often lacking. Initially published serially in Household Words between April and August of 1854, Hard Times was published in book form almost immediately following the final serial in 1854. This was one of only two of Dickens' novels that appeared without illustrations. It is also the only novel with no scenes in London. Viewed as a departure from Dickens' previous tales, the work presents what was to become an increasingly somber picture of contemporary society in Dickens' works. Critics such as George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Macaulay focused on Dickens' treatment of trade unions and his post "Industrial Revolution pessimism in regard to the divide between capitalist mill owners and undervalued workers during the Victorian era. [ECKEL P.131, GIMBEL A136. SADLEIR 689. SMITH 1:11].
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