Great Expectations by DICKENS, CHARLES - 1861

London: Chapman and Hall, 1861. Three octavo volumes. (iv), 344pp.; (ii), 351pp.; (ii), 344, + 32pp. of advertisements dated May, 1861. First edition, first impression. One of 1,000 copies. Widely acknowledged as Dickens's masterpiece, Great Expectations was one of only two novels not published in monthly parts and published without illustrations. It was serialized in the weekly periodical All the Year Round from December 1860 to August 1861; the first edition appeared on 6 July 1861. Great Expectations is the rarest of Dickens' larger books in that most of the first edition was purchased by libraries; those copies that survive, therefore, are usually not in good condition. This copy conforms to nearly all points established in the Clarendon edition; the exceptions all occurring in Vol. III, which points to a later state occurring within the first impression of that volume. Four additional printings, which were designated "editions," quickly followed, with all misprints preserved. This is a fine copy in publisher's bright violet cloth stamped in blind and gilt, showing minor toning to the spines. Inner hinges of volumes 1 and 3 barely starting. Housed in a full-morocco folding case which bears the bookplates of noted Dickens collectors Kenyon Starling and William E. Self.