Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 28 Oct 2026.
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Three volumes published by Chapman and Hall. About 1,000 copies were bound for the first issue on 6 July 1861, and most copies went to Mudie's and other circulating libraries, so clean copies are rare. Four further so-called editions followed on 5 August, 17 August, 21 September and 30 October 1861. Sources disagree on whether these came from one printing with altered title pages or from separate printings. The 1993 Clarendon edition (Appendix D) sets out the textual points that separate the five issues, and a set with first-issue title pages can still have later-issue text, so a full collation is needed to confirm a first issue. Original cloth is usually described as violet wavy-grain cloth, blind-stamped, with gilt spine lettering, though Bonhams has described a blue copy. The genuine second edition is the one-volume Library Edition of 1862.
Read the full guide to Chapman and Hall first editions, decade by decade, and check your copy's copyright page against it. Our number line decoder reads the printing from the row of numbers.
This is the title page of a first edition copy. Compare yours: the imprint at the foot, the publisher, place and date, should match exactly. A later printing or edition usually changes the date or adds a line.
Title page of the first edition (1861). Scan: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, via the Internet Archive. Public domain.
We have not yet confirmed the issue points that tell this first impression from later ones. Until we do, compare your copy's title page and copyright page with the publisher, place and year above: any later printing or edition statement means it is not this one.
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Chapman and Hall, London, in 1861, in hardback.
Points of issue are listed only where at least two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 28 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.
A Dickens first edition comes in three forms: the monthly parts in paper wrappers, a volume bound up from those …
Read the guide →6 min readPoints of issue are small, documented details, such as a misprint later corrected, a binding colour or a jacket price, …
Read the guide →7 min readTo identify a first edition, check that your copy is the first printing of the first edition. Read the copyright …
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