Beschreibung:

DICKENS (CHARLES)Bleak House, FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM, AUTHOR'S DEDICATION COPY INSCRIBED TO HIS FRIEND AND COLLABORATOR MARK LEMON ("Mark Lemon from Charles Dickens third October 1853") in blue ink on the dedication leaf, etched frontispiece, additional pictorial title and 38 plates (including 10 "atmospheric dark" plates) by Hablot K. Browne ("Phiz"), without the half-title, occasional spotting, dark blue morocco gilt by Bayntun of Bath, a gilt-blocked portrait of Dickens in oval on upper cover, facsimile signature in gilt on lower cover, spine in 6 compartments, gilt dentelles, g.e., matching morocco-lipped cloth slipcase [Eckell, pp.79-81; Smith I:10], 8vo, Bradbury and Evans, 1853FootnotesDEDICATION COPY OF BLEAK HOUSE INSCRIBED AT THE TIME OF PUBLICATION TO MARK LEMON, HIS FELLOW FOUNDING MEMBER OF "THE GUILD OF LITERATURE AND ART". Bleak House was the first of Dickens's great novels "which addressed themselves to the conditions of England, novels that have endured as accounts of mid-century life and as extraordinary works of art, poetic, innovative, irradiated with anger and dark humour..." (Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens 2011). Dickens dedicated Bleak House "as a remembrance of our friendly union to my companions in the Guild of Literature and Art", of which he had been a founding member. Formed to assist impoverished authors and artists, other founders included Bulwer Lytton, Wilkie Collins, John Forster, Mark Lemon, John Tenniel and Charles Knight The present copy is therefore one of a handful of dedication copies. Others that are known, inscribed by Dickens on the same day, include those to John Tenniel (Sotheby's New York, 21 July 1992, lot 49), and Charles Knight (Sotheby's, 24 September 2019, lot 162). "Lemon's friendship with Charles Dickens was a close and long-lasting one. Although he contributed to Bentley's Miscellany while Dickens was editor, it is unlikely that the two men met until after the first issue of Punch appeared. In April 1843 Lemon was formally invited to dinner by Dickens and their friendship grew" (ODNB). Lemon was at the time editor of Punch, and they both shared a love of amateur theatricals, collaborating both as authors (co-writing Mr Nightingale's Diary) and performers, including provincial tours in 1851 and 1852. Lemon was also, from 1851, a frequent visitor to Dicken's London home at Tavistock House, by which time they were "already fellow members of a weekly walking club, [and] had taken nocturnal strolls around London together" (ODNB), excursions that undoubtedly were to influence Dickens's writing of Bleak House. Following a falling out in 1858 when Lemon neglected to publish in Punch his friend's proclamation outlining the reasons for a separation from his wife, Catherine, the two were reconciled in 1867, remaining friends until their deaths in 1870. Provenance: Mark Lemon (1809-1870), author's ownership inscription; Christie's New York, William E. Self Family Collection, Part I, 2 April 2008, lot 146; Sotheby's, 4 December 2009, lot 83.