6 volumes (3 volumes in 6 parts), 8vo (212 x 133 mm). 3 half-titles, portrait frontispieces, illustrated throughout; EXTRA ILLUSTRATED by the addition of approximately 196 portraits and plates, and with 5 printed wrappers bound in for monthly issues of Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, Dombey and Son, Our Mutual Friend, Martin Chuzzlewit. (Some spotting and staining, some light offsetting.) Contemporary red straight-grained morocco gilt top edge gilt, others uncut, stamp-signed by Riviere & Son (some light wear to extremities).

FIRST EDITION of this biography of Dickens, written by his friend, literary agent, editor, and literary executor John Forster. Following Dickens’ death, Forster was left the manuscripts for many of Dickens’ novels, which are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.