BARNABY RUDGE. AMERICAN NOTES For GENERAL CIRCULATION. [as published in] The ST. PETERSBURG ENGLISH REVIEW, of Literature, The Arts, and Sciences. Volume I [II III IV] - First Year. Under the Patronage of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Empress.
St. Petersburg: Published by Hauer and Co, 1842. 1st printing thus. 4 volumes (of an eventual 6): [2], xvi, 572; [2], xv, [1 (blank)], 615, [1 (blank)], [2], 572; [2], 580 pp. Subscriber lists found at beginning of Vols I & II. 8vo. 9-1/8" x 6-1/8". Modern tan half calf over period marbled paper boards. Period black leather title & volume labels to spine. Eps renewed. Modest extremity wear. Period pos of one "G Harris" to preliminary blank. A Very Good set. Item #36792
Very rare contemporaneous periodical appearance (Vols I & II) of Dickens' fifth novel & first historical tale which culminates in the Gordon riots of 1780, with the story having a background theme opposing capital punishment, a lifelong stance taken by Dickens.
Volume IV publishes 3 extract selections from Dickens' AMERICAN NOTES, or as the Editor states, "we merely offer ourselves as tasters, -- extracting from this eagerly-expected book as copiously as time and space will allow ..."
And while our listing herein focuses on this Russian appearance of Dickens [the first?], we note much else of English & American Letters appearing in these 4 volumes, such as a portion of Cooper's DEERSLAYER, 'Death of the Red Man', early in Volume 1.
OCLC reports just 4 institutional holdings, of which only 1 is in the US (U of Mich).
Price: $1,500.00