A wonderful piece of Dickens publishing history: Bleak House in the original monthly parts, just as Victorian readers first bought and read the novel between March 1852 and September 1853.

London: Bradbury and Evans, 1852–1853. Twenty numbers in nineteen monthly parts, with 40 steel-engraved plates after Hablot K. Browne (“Phiz”), retaining the famous original blue printed wrappers designed by Phiz. Housed its ancient dark green cloth chemise and matching slipcase.

The set shows several important first-issue points, including “elgble” on p. 19 of Part I, “chair” on p. 209 of Part VII, and “counsinship” on p. 275 of Part IX. The scarce “Village Pastor” slip in Part XV is also present.

For the Dickens collector, there is something particularly appealing about the novels in parts: these were not simply bindings manufactured after publication, but the ephemeral monthly installments through which Dickens’s enormous contemporary audience originally experienced his fiction.

The wrappers show light chipping, and the upper margin of nearly every front wrapper has been clipped, apparently to remove a former owner’s signature. A few leaves are beginning to loosen; the rear wrapper of XIX/XX is separated from the spine, but still present. Some tissue guards are absent, producing offsetting from several plates. Pale marginal spotting occurs throughout, mostly light but heavier in a few numbers.

PLEASE NOTE: While the text, plates, and original-part format remain the heart of the set, it is not complete as to advertisements and inserted slips. Numerous Bleak House Advertiser sections and individual advertising inserts are absent as is often the case. The surviving material includes the desirable Village Pastor slip in Part XV, along with other advertisements and inserts. A detailed part-by-part collation of the advertisement deficiencies is provided below.

• Part I: Bleak House Advertiser, lacking 20pp; lacking all rear ads, including Waterlow & Sons insert - 

• Part II: lacking Bleak House Advertiser; rear ads lacking Waterlow & Sons insert and "Notice of Removal" slip - 

• Part III: Bleak House Advertiser, lacking 12pp., lacking "Household Words" slip; rear ads lacking Waterlow & Sons insert, Crochet Cotton slip printed in red in 1st issue - 

• Part IV: rear ads lacking Waterlow & Sons insert and "Marshland, Son, & Co's" slip - 

• Part V: lacking Bleak House Advertiser; Lloyd's Advertiser uncut, Crochet Cotton slip printed in red in 3rd issue - 

• Part VI: Crochet Cotton slip at the rear printed in red in 3rd issue - 

• Part VII: lacking Bleak House Advertiser and slip - 

• Part VIII: lacking Bleak House Advertiser; rear ads lacking Waterlow insert - 

• Part IX: lacking Bleak House Advertiser and two slips - 

• Part X: lacking Bleak House Advertiser - 

• Part XI: lacking Bleak House Advertiser and "Household Words" slip; rear ads lacking "New Sporting Newspaper" slip - 

• Part XII: lacking Bleak House Advertiser and "Household Words" slip; rear ads lacking Partridge and Cozens and Waterlow & Sons inserts - Part XIII: lacking Bleak House Advertiser - 

• Part XIV: lacking Bleak House Advertiser; rear ads lacking "Ali Ahmed" slip, "W. and A.K. Johnston" and "Waterlow & Sons" - Part XV: lacking Bleak House Advertiser; rear ads lacking "Partridge and Cozens" insert - 

• Part XVI: lacking Bleak House Advertiser; lacking "Grace Aguilar" slip - Part XVII: lacking Bleak House Advertiser - Part XVIII: lacking Bleak House Advertiser - Part XIX/XX: lacking Bleak House Advertiser and two slips; lacking all rear ads.

A handsome, evocative survivor of Dickens’s original serial publication, with genuine shelf presence and strong appeal for the collector who wants Bleak House in the form its first readers knew it.