Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress.

First edition. 3 vols., with vols. 1 and 3 in 12vos and vol. 2 in 8vo. Pp. [iv], 331, [1, blank], [4, ads]; [iv], 307, [1, blank]; [ii], 315, [1, blank]. Contemporary half dark-brown polished calf, over marbled boards, with green morocco labels to spines, lettered and double-ruled in gilt, with blind-tooled floral decorations in compartments within raised bands; marbled endpapers and edges.

First issue, published on Nov. 9, 1838, six months before the magazine serialization was completed, with title-page attribution to "Boz," p.164 in vol. 3 reading "pilaster" rather than "pier" and with the suppressed "Fireside" plate (facing p. 313 in vol. 3), 3 etched frontispieces and 21+[1] pls., half-titles with publisher's advertisements on versos in vols. 1 and 2 (all called for), 4pp. integral adverts. present at end vol. 1.

With the extra, substituted "Rose Maylie and Oliver" or "Church" plate tipped in before the final page of vol. 3. No list of illustrations to vol. 1, perhaps indicating an earlier state, as insertion is likely to have followed Bentley's realisation that George Cruikshank's name had been omitted from the publication.

Bearing the armorial bookplates of Oswald Fitch (1853–1915), master engraver and artist, to front pastedowns. Steel-engraved Centenary Testimonial stamps printed on hand-made paper, and issued in 1912 in aid of the Author's descendants, to endpapers. W.T. Spencer's of New Oxford St., London, bookseller's ticket, to vol. 1 pastedown. Occasional light foxing or offsetting, boards lightly rubbed. An exceptional set.

Author's second novel and first to appear in three volumes or "triple-deckers," which became a standard format for much of the nineteenth century. Serialized in "Bentley's Miscellany" magazine from February 1837 through April 1839, but not issued in monthly parts until 1846, this is not merely the "first edition in book form," but the "true first edition." To speed up publication, printing was shared equally between Samuel Bentley in Fleet Street, and Whiting of Beaufort House, with the later responsible for vol. 2 plus prelims. and signatures A-F of vol. 3, and the former for the remainder.

Further, in his rush to capitalize on the author's phenomenal success with Pickwick Papers the previous year, and bring out Oliver in book form before its completion in his periodical, Bentley forced Cruikshank to complete the last few plates in haste. Dickens took an instant dislike to the "Fireside" plate upon inspection of the illustrations on the eve of publication and asked for a new design. Not completed in time for incorporation into the earliest copies, the so-called "Church" plate replaced its "Fireside" forerunner when the book was re-issued just a week later, on 16 November. In addition, Dickens no longer wishing to be styled "Boz," reverted to publishing under his own name.

Incorporating the author's dismal memories of his strained youthful circumstances, the story of workhouse orphan Oliver Twist, who finds refuge with a gang of juvenile pickpockets in 1830's London, under the tutelage of criminal mastermind, Fagin, was "conceived as a satire on the new poor law of 1834 which herded the destitute and the helpless into harshly run union workhouses" (ODNB). This cry for social reform became the template for numerous adaptations, including David Lean's classic 1948 film, starring Alec Guinness as Fagin, and the 1960 musical, Oliver!, with music and lyrics by Lionel Bart, which subsequent screen transfer by Carol Reed, won six Academy Awards including Best Picture for 1968.

[Eckel 59; Gimbel/Podeschi A27; Sadleir 696; Smith I, 4; Wolff 1808]