=FORSTER’S LIFE OF THE AUTHOR=.
The pictures, numbering upwards of 850, comprise all the Original
Illustrations; with a complete series of Portraits, Additional
Illustrations, Facsimiles and Reproductions of Handwriting, many of
which have not been included in any collected edition of the novelist’s
works; the whole printed upon India Paper, and mounted on Plate paper.
Strictly limited to 750 sets for England and America. Complete in 40
Volumes.
Royal 8vo. Price =10s. 6d.= net per vol.
The National Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens is designed to rank
as the final and definitive edition of his works, and to serve as a
worthy memorial to the connection which has subsisted for over seventy
years between the firm of Chapman and Hall and the immortal memory of
Charles Dickens. It is by far the most handsome edition of Dickens ever
placed upon the market, and being strictly limited in number is likely
to take its place in a very short time among those treasures of the
booklover which change hands at highly enhanced prices.
The edition is being printed by Messrs. T. and A. Constable of
Edinburgh, His Majesty’s Printers, in a type newly cast for the purpose,
upon pure rag paper of the highest quality.
=THE TEXT.=—The text used is that which was corrected by Charles Dickens
himself in the last two years of his life, and therefore contains all
the copyright emendations which he made when the volumes passed for the
last time through his hands.
The edition contains all the collected papers from whatever source that
seemed worthy of permanent association with the name of their
author—from _The Examiner_, _Daily News_, _Household Words_, _All the
Year Round_, over 130 in all—the most notable of these being all
Dickens’s contributions to _Household Words_, some 90 in number, _which
have been identified for the first time by indisputable evidence_.
=THE ILLUSTRATIONS.=—As regards the choice of illustrations, the
Publishers’ plan has been to include only those pictures which were
drawn for their editions during the life of the author, and which may
therefore be held to have received his personal approbation. Under this
arrangement they are able to reproduce for the first time in a Collected
Edition a number of illustrations not usually associated with the
novels, and the utmost care has been taken to do justice to the artists’
workmanship. The original illustrations are printed from a duplicate set
of the steel plates on the best India paper and mounted on plate paper—a
process which gives a greatly refined value to the delicacy of the
original steel plates.
=THE ARTISTS.=—Dickens, as is well known, took the keenest possible
interest in the illustrations to his books, and was very particular over
the choice of the artists. At the same time, his work offered such
infinite possibilities to pen and pencil, that all the best talent of
his time was eager to be employed in his service, with the result that
the muster-roll of the artists represented in the present edition
contains the names of all the leading masters of Black and White
throughout the Victorian Era. It may be said without exaggeration that
the illustrations alone form an historical picture gallery of their
time, as will be admitted when the following list is studied and
understood.