FIRST SINGLE-VOLUME EDITION. Leather-bound, hardcover, octavo (22 x 14 x 3.5 cm.), pp. xii, 311. A new edition, revised and corrected, with English text, and illustrated with 24 steel-engravings by George Cruikshank. Beautifully bound in full red crushed morocco by Bayntun-Riviere, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised bands, gilt medallion portrait of Dickens on the front panel, facsimile of author's signature stamped in gilt on the back panel, inner gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Contains the author's preface to the third edition, dated April, 1841. Laid in is a single typed page with the Eckels collation. Condition: FINE. An immaculate copy and scarce thus.
Note: A wonderful copy of the first single-volume edition of Dickens’ best-known novel, bound in full morocco gilt by Bayntun-Riviere. In fine condition - an exceptional presentation. "Dickens turned in Oliver Twist to the novel of crime and terror. Some characters are drawn with humorous realism, but for the most part humor is dimmed by gloomy memories of the author’s own neglected childhood and sensational scenes are shrouded in an atmosphere genuinely eerie and sinister That Dickens shared with his contemporaries the conviction that the novel should be an instrument of social reform is evident in Oliver Twist" (Baugh).
