LITTLE DORRIT

London: Bradbury and Evans, 1857. First edition, first issue with the points as called for including: the three line errata on page xiv, "William" for "Frederick" on page 317 line 27, B2 instead of BB2 on pp. 371, lacking errata on page 467, and "Rigaud" for "Blandois" on pp. 469, 470, 472, and 473. With 40 engraved illustrations by H.K. Browne [Phiz] including the frontispiece and vignette title-page. 8vo, handsomely bound in contemporary three-quarter dark plum-brown calf over textured cloth boards, the spine with gilt tooled lightly raised bands ruled in gilt, compartments richly gilt in ornamented panel designs and with a red morocco label lettered and ruled in gilt. xiv, 623 pp. A very nice copy, much better then one would typically find in contemporary bindings, the leather with only very minor rubbing and mellowing, sturdy and strong with firm hinges, internally solid, the text very clean. A bit of minor and all but inevitable spotting to the plates, a bit more so to the frontis but still less then is common. FIRST EDITION WITH EARLIEST ISSUE POINTS IN A HANDSOME BINDING OF UNCOMMON PLUM-BROWN CALF. Little Dorrit was published in 19 monthly installments, each two illustrations by Phiz. Each installment cost a shilling, with the exception of the last, a double issue, which cost two shillings. It is a work of satire on the shortcomings of the government and society of the period.
Much of Dickens' ire is focused upon the institutions of debtors' prisons—in which people who owed money were imprisoned, unable to work, until they repaid their debts. The representative prison in this case is the Marshalsea where the author's own father had been imprisoned.