Description
First edition, early issue of Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.
Octavo, xvi, 624pp. Full tan calf with double gilt-ruled border on covers. Title stamped in gilt over red leather spine label, raised bands with decorative gilt compartments. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers with gilt floral turn-ins and board edges. Bound by Henry Sotheran Ltd. of London. Solid binding, interior hinges reinforced with Japanese tissue, exterior joints professionally repaired. Lower corner on back cover lightly worn. Complete with 40 full-page plates, including frontispiece and vignette title page dated 1848. Occasional offsetting from illustrations. This copy is an early issue of the first edition. Heading on page 1 is not in rustic type and page 336 lacks the suppressed woodcut. It does have “Mr. Pitt” for “Sir Pitt” on page 453, line 31. (Van Duzer 231) A nice example of Thackeray’s most famous novel.
