Description
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, first one-volume edition.
Octavo, viii, 494pp. Full tan leather, title stamped in gilt on spine, raised bands with gilt-ruled compartments. Marbled endpapers with gilt-ruled turn-ins and decorative board edges. Offsetting to outer edges of endpapers due to turn-ins. Top edge gilt. Frontispiece with original albumen portrait of Wilkie Collins and facsimile signature below. Additional illustrated title page by John Gilbert. Front joint professionally reinforced. Bound by Zaehnsdorf. Spine and cover edges rubbed, toning to spine. Mild foxing to preliminary pages and last few pages. Occasional finger marks to text pages. Repair to diagonal tear at lower corner of pages 85/86. Previous owner’s bookplate on front free endpaper.
The Woman in White is an early example of detective fiction. First published serially in 1859-1860, the novel was first published in book form as a three-volume set in 1860. This edition of 1861 is the first one-volume publication.
