DICKENS IN PARTS IN THE LIBRARY

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 3, Issue 3, 1 November 1970, Page 152

DICKENS IN PARTS IN THE LIBRARY

K.S.W.

1970 marks the centenary of the death of Charles Dickens; an event which has brought forth renewed interest in the works of this great Victorian novelist. A correspondent to the TLS on 16 April this year reveals the surprising information that very few major British libraries have copies of Dickens’ novels in the original parts. The British Museum has only one; Victoria and Albert Museum two, while the Bodleian Library holds seven. Turnbull is fortunate in possessing the original parts for seven of the thirteen novels so published. These are The Posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club (issued April 1836 to November 1837); Master Humphrey’s Clock (issued April 1840 to November 1841); Dombey and son (issued October 1846 to April 1848); The personal history of David Copperfield (issued May 1849 to November 1850); Bleak House (issued March 1852 to September 1853); Little Dorrit (issued December 1855 to June 1857); Our mutual friend (issued May 1864 to November 1865). All these titles were published in twenty numbers, bound in nineteen monthly parts, price one shilling per number, except the last two (19 and 20) which form a double number, priced at two shillings. Each part contains, in addition to the text, coloured wrappers, pages of advertisements and plates. The final double part also contains the title page and preliminary leaves for the complete work. In the case of Master Humphrey’s Clock which includes The old curiosity shop and Barnaby Rudge, the library does not have the monthly parts but instead the earlier form of 88 weekly parts issued at threepence each. These weekly parts were issued as a folded sheet of sixteen pages, the inner twelve pages of letterpress and the two outer leaves forming the wrapper. These have been fully described in A bibliography of the periodical works of Charles Dickens, bibliographical, analytical and statistical, by Thomas Hatton and Arthur H. Cleaver. This comprehensive work lists the differences between the various issues of each part as for example in the early parts of Pickwick Papers, where owing to its unexpected popularity, the text of the first eight monthly parts was actually reprinted many times at very early dates with minor variations. The Library’s holdings have not yet been fully collated against this bibliography.