The Battle of Life: A Love Story by Charles Dickens. London: Bradbury & Evans, MDCCCXLVI (1846).
FIRST EDITION of one of Dickens' Christmas Books in the original publisher's cloth, a particularly excellent example with the vignette title page in the very scarce third state, with several edition points present here which are typically missing. A lovely copy.
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Edition Points: (as mentioned in Smith II.)
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pp.20, line 6, the dot over the i in "into" is faint, in some copies only. (present)
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pp.40, line 8, d in "sealed" is faint. (present)
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pp.50, period at the end of the headline is faint. (present)
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pp.67, the "A" in the headline is filled and partially printed in some copies.
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pp.72, last line, there is a space in the word too, thus reading "to o".
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pp.82, line 1, after the word "times" the comma is clipped. (present)
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pp.90, line 7 & 8, unnecessary quotes.
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pp.118, line 14, second quotation mark not printed properly in some copies at the end of the line. (present)
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pp.132, last line, the second c in "Clemency" printed weakly in some copies. (present)
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pp.169, the number "9" is missing from the page number in one copy.
Vignette Title Page Variants:
There are four variants of the vignette title page:
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Variant 1 has simply printed "A Love Story." text with no embellishments.
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Variant 2, second state, has "A Love Story" printed in viny letters in a banner/scroll.
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Variant 3, third state, has the "A Love Story" text printed more elaborately with the banner/scroll being carried by an angel/cupid. The imprint is in one line with no date.
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Variant 4, fourth state, has the same design as the third state but is lacking the imprint.
Condition:
[(1), h.t., frontis, t.p., t.p., 4pp, 175pp, 1pp, 2pp, (1)]
Original publisher's full red cloth binding, a little dulled/discoloured, but generally excellent. Structurally secure with both boards securely attached, without shelf lean. All edges gilt, very good. Mildly toned text block, but internally very good overall. A lovely copy.
[Smith II., 8]
