The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (Tom Sawyer's Comrade) by TWAIN, Mark [CLEMENS, Samuel Langhorne, pseudonym] (1835-1910), [KEMBLE, E.W., illustrator]

London: Chatto and Windus, 1884. [Literary classic] FIRST UK EDITION. Octavo, pp.xvi; 438; [2], blank. With 174 wood-cut illustrations by Kemble. Exquisitely bound by Frost of Bath in full scarlet polished calf with full gilt back, twin title labels, marbled endpapers, inner gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, original decorative cloth covers preserved at rear, bound without adverts. Internally very clean, discreet owners stamp in purple ink to half-title, binding very fine. A beautiful copy housed in a fleece-lined cloth slip-case. Following the classic 'boy's own' adventures of the promising young gent Tom Sawyer, Twain here attempts a more mature, somewhat darker picture of a less privileged American childhood on the mighty Mississippi. Regarded by many as a corner-stone of American literature, it confronts issues such as slavery in a sympathetic yet humorously sardonic tone which belonged to Twain alone. BAL 3414. Listed in The Observer's All-Time 100 Best Novels [2003]. BMC No.261, pp.90-93.