DICKENS, Charles. The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain. A Fancy for Christmas-Time.

London: Bradbury & Evans, 11, Bouverie Street, 1848. Small octavo. pp. [iv], 188. With engraved frontispiece, additional vignette title, and further illustrations in the text by Tenniel, Leech, Stanfield, and Stone, as listed. Original publisher’s red cloth, elaborately blind-stamped boards, upper cover with central gilt wreath enclosing title, spine gilt; all edges gilt. Internally a good, clean copy, with the engraved plates and illustrations present as called for. Some age-toning to leaves, occasional light spotting, but overall a well-preserved text block.

The final of Dickens’s celebrated Christmas Books, here in its original cloth binding. The gilt centre to the upper cover remains visible, though somewhat dulled, the cloth generally worn and rubbed, particularly at the spine where the gilt is largely faded; head and tail of spine with fraying and light loss. Binding sound, with a slight lean.

A very good, honest example in original state, retaining its complete illustrative programme—an important consideration for collectors of Dickens’s Christmas series.

The Haunted Man (1848) concludes Dickens’s series of five Christmas Books, following A Christmas Carol (1843), The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), and The Battle of Life (1846). Returning to a more overtly supernatural theme, the work explores memory, grief, and redemption through the figure of Professor Redlaw, whose bargain to forget sorrow proves morally destructive. The original cloth bindings of the Christmas Books, with their distinctive gilt and blind-stamped designs, are now highly sought-after, particularly when complete with all illustrations as issued.

[L4 6C]