[DICKENS, CHARLES]. A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. London: Chapman and Hall, n.d. [1860].
'READING EDITION'. Cloth-bound; hardcover; octavo (20.5 x 13.5 x 2 cm); pp. 166. English text. Bound in publisher's original red cloth with titles and decoration in gilt to spine and upper board; blind panelled covers; all page edges gilt; illustrated by John Leech with four hand-coloured plates and four black and white drawings within the text. Condition: VERY GOOD. Binding tight, secure and square. Light sunning to spine, the ends a little bumped. Covers well-preserved with a small splash mark to lower board. Interior largely clean with trivial foxing confined to the plates. Bookplates to front pastedown and front endpaper. An excellent copy. Scarce.
Notes: Exceptionally rare and important edition of arguably the finest work of fiction of the 19th century. This rare edition is known as the 'Reading Edition', owning to it being used by Dickens in his public readings of A Christmas Carol; hence the size of the book is notably larger than other editions.
