[DICKENS, CHARLES]. A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. London: Chapman and Hall, MDCCCXLIII. [1844].
SECOND EDITION. Cloth-bound; hardcover; octavo (17 x 10.5 x 1.5 cm.); pp. [10], 166, [2] publisher's advertisements. English text. Handsomely bound in publisher's original cinnamon vertically-waved cloth, stamped in blind and gilt, cream endpapers, all edges gilt, J. Bain booksellers label to corner of front pastedown, half-title printed in blue, 4 hand-coloured etched plates by & after Leech and 4 plain woodcut vignettes by Linton after Leech, title-page printed in red and blue, 2pp. of publisher's advertisements at end. Condition: VERY GOOD. Binding tight and secure with slight lean to spine. Covers a little faded around the extremities. Interior very well-preserved, remaining largely fresh and clean, else for some trivial offsetting at the colour plates. Contemporary previous owner name and date to front endpaper. An wonderful copy of Dickens' first and most famous Christmas book. Scarce thus.
Notes: Rare second edition of this classic Christmas story and the author's most widely read novel. According to John Eckel, "A Christmas Carol" was first published on December 19th, 1843 and sold 6,000 copies on the first day. Before the end of the year, eleven days later, it was in the third edition, with the combined number of copies of the second and third editions being estimated at only two to three thousand copies. This means that the second and third editions were at least two to three times scarcer than the first. The work was extravagantly costly as Dickens for the first time used colour in the title-page and etchings as he wanted to make the book a beautiful gift and to be a celebration of the Christmas spirit. [Eckel p. 116; Smith II: 4].
