The Mystery of Edwin Drood
London: Chapman and Hall, 1870. First Edition, First Issue. Octavo, vii, 190, [2] pages, bound in contemporary quarter black leather over blue cloth covered boards by William Jackson, Bookbinder, Aberdeen, with binder’s ticket present. One original blue paper wrapper from the serial parts is bound in at the front. Spine with gilt-lettering and decoration. All edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Complete with engraved frontispiece, vignette title page, and twelve full-page plates by S. L. Fildes. The Mystery of Edwin Drood, published in 1870, is Charles Dickens’s final and famously unfinished novel, left incomplete at the time of his death. Issued originally in monthly parts, the book centers on the disappearance of Edwin Drood and unfolds as a dark, psychologically charged mystery set in the cathedral town of Cloisterham. The narrative explores themes of obsession, guilt, duplicity, and moral decay, with the sinister figure of John Jasper standing among Dickens’s most complex late creations. Written during the final phase of Dickens’s career, Edwin Drood marks a stylistic shift toward greater ambiguity and interior tension, and its unresolved ending has fueled more than a century of speculation and critical debate, securing its place as one of the most intriguing works in Victorian literature.
Provenance: Farrell family copy, with a laid-in ex-libris label (“Ex libris G. M. & J. H. Farrell – Lege felicissime”) and a handwritten letter dated February 27, 1963, from Jim Farrell, discussing the book’s first-edition status, serial issue, and contemporary Scottish binding.
A complete and well-documented example of Dickens’s last novel, distinguished by its identified period binding, preserved serial material, and continuous private ownership history. Some discoloration and foxing, soiling along bottom edge of the plates, else in very good condition. Item #191
Price: $1,250.00