Pickwick Abroad; or the Tour in France
London: Thomas Tegg, 1839. Illustrated with forty-one steel engravings (including frontis and vignette title page) by Alfred Crowquill and John Phillips, and with thirty-three wood cuts by Bonner. First edition, first printing. Bound in full brown calf, gilt borders with central panel stained green and blind stamped in imitation long-grain morocco, red morocco spine labels, spine decorations and dentelles stamped in gilt, aeg, marbled endpapers, with two ribbon markers. Octavo. xvi, 628. 8.5" x 5.5" Heavy rubbing to joints and corners with spots of wear to spine tips, front joint starting but holding firm, sparse foxing throughout, still very good. Overall a square and tight copy. Item #239573
MORE POPULAR THAN DICKENS
Although now overshadowed by Dickens, George Reynolds was dubbed the most popular author in Victorian England, prolifically publishing beloved penny dreadfuls like The Mysteries of London (1844).
Drawing on Dickens's Pickwick Papers and his own time spent in Paris as a naturalized French citizen, Reynolds offered a more satirical political slant to Dickens's characters. Pickwick Abroad, originally published serially in the Monthly Magazine between 1837 and 1838, serves as a humorous example of nineteenth-century English attitudes towards the French.
[Sadler 2038].
Price: $550.00