1874 LITTLE DORRIT CHARLES DICKENS 2 VLS PHIZ ILLS LTHR

LITTLE DORRIT

Charles Dickens; 1874; First Edition Thus; Boston, James R. Osgood & Company; Illustrated by Hablot Knighte Browne "Phiz"; Leather; Vol. 20,21, Complete in Itself; 456, 427 Pages; 5"x 7.5"; Rare!!

Great for any Fan of the Legendary Author or Collector!!!  Great on a Shelf; Complete in Two Volumes!!

Attributes:

Two Beautiful, sleek spotted marble cover designs with Red Morocco leather bindings and corners, ornate gold bindings, five raised bands, pinstripe gold borders, marble end pages, marble page edges all around, with a great frontispiece/title page, and a total of 40 Wonderful illustrations by the famous artist and a Great Classic Selection from the Famous Author!!!

Little Dorrit is a serial novel by Charles Dickens published originally between 1855 and 1857. 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.

Most of Dickens' other critiques in this particular novel concern the social safety net: industry, and the treatment and safety of workers; the bureaucracy of the British Treasury (as figured in the fictional "Circumlocution Office" [Bk. 1, Ch. 10]); and the separation of people based on the lack of intercourse between the classes.

The novel begins in Marseille with the notorious murderer Rigaud informing his cellmate that he has murdered his wife. Also in the town is Arthur Clennam, who is returning to London to see his mother following the death of his father, with whom he had lived for twenty years in China. As he died, his father had given Arthur a mysterious watch, murmuring, "Your mother." Naturally Arthur had assumed that it was intended for Mrs. Clennam, whom he and the world supposed to be his mother.

Inside the watch casing was an old silk paper with the initials D N F (Do Not Forget) worked into it in beads. It was a message - but when Arthur shows it to harsh and implacable Mrs. Clennam, a religious fanatic, she refuses to reveal what it means, and the two become estranged.

In London, William Dorrit, imprisoned as a debtor, has been a resident of Marshalsea debtor's prison for so long that his children – snobbish Fanny, idle Edward (known as Tip), and Amy (known as Little Dorrit) – have all grown up there, though they are free to pass in and out of the prison as they please. Amy is devoted to her father and through her sewing, has been financially supporting the two of them.

Background:

Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870), pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print. A concern with what he saw as the pressing need for social reform is a theme that runs throughout his work.

Much of his work first appeared in periodicals and magazines in serialised form, a favoured way of publishing fiction at the time. Other writers of the time would complete entire novels before serial publication commenced, but Dickens often wrote his in parts, in the order in which they were meant to appear. The practice lent his stories a particular rhythm, punctuated by one cliffhanger after another to keep the public eager for the next instalment. Critics and fellow-novelists such as George Gissing and G. K. Chesterton have applauded Dickens for his mastery of prose, and for his teeming gallery of unique characters, many of whom have acquired iconic status in the English-speaking world. Others such as Henry James and Virginia Woolf have accused him of sentimentality and implausibility.

Hablot Knight Browne (12 July 1815 – 8 July 1882) was an English artist, famous as Phiz, the illustrator of the best-known books by Charles Dickens, Charles Lever and Harrison Ainsworth in their original editions.

Condition:

Conditions are Good+/Very Good.  Some wear to edges/little chipping to hinges, little color added to hinges, pages are very good, hinges/text block are very good.  Overall, for 135 years old its in Good+/Very Good Condition!!!