1st 1854 Charles Dickens Hard Times [entire- 20 Parts] HOUSEHOLD WORDS 600+p (NF+)

This rare and antique 1st 1854 edition of Charles Dickens' Hard Times is an exceptional find. Featuring 20 parts and more than 600 pages, this hardcover book is in near-fine condition, making it a great collectible item for any serious Dickens fan.

1854  *1st US/1st.*  3/4 Leather w/marbled sides.  Contrasting morocco (goat) gilt lettered spine label.   Approx 600pp (textblock approaches FINE).  Handsome!  25 Issues (w/25 title pages, etc.).  Includes (in its entirety, all 20 parts) FIRST AMERICAN APPEARANCE of  fabled novel Hard Times – For These Times (commonly known as Hard Times), the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book appraises English society and is aimed at highlighting the social and economic pressures of the times. Excellent condition, inside and outside! 

25 Issues [along with 25 Title Pages, etc.]... Nos. 204 - 229.

McElrath, the American publisher of Dickens's Household Words, serialized HARD TIMES in twenty weekly issues from May to September 1854 -- thus the novel is here complete in the 1854 annual volume. McElrath printed the parts in such a way that customers could subsequently bind up just the HARD TIMES segments. McElrath would issue the book in wrappers just after serialization -- the first American edition, but only by a day (then Harper came out with their own, designed to kill McElrath's sales).

HOUSEHOLD WORDS.   Vol ix.  Bound half-yearly volume. Thick:  616pp (NF+).  1st US/1st.  Filigree divider

HANDSOME!  3/4 brown polished calf blocked in blind.  Contrasting morocco (goat) gilt lettered spine label.  Marbled sides.  Hubbed spine block and decorated in gilt.  5 hubs and so six sections. Thick:  600+pp (Near Fine+).  Top edge brown, other edges red speckled.

"My satire is against those who see figures and averages, and nothing else," proclaimed Charles Dickens in explaining the theme of this classic novel. Published in 1854, the story concerns one Thomas Gradgrind, a "fanatic of the demonstrable fact," who raises his children, Tom and Louisa, in a stifling and arid atmosphere of grim practicality.

 Without a moral compass to guide them, the children sink into lives of desperation and despair, played out against the grim background of Coketown, a wretched community shadowed by an industrial behemoth. Louisa falls into a loveless marriage with Josiah Bouderby, a vulgar banker, while the unscrupulous Tom, totally lacking in principle, becomes a thief who frames an innocent man for his crime. Witnessing the degradation and downfall of his children, Gradgrind realizes that his own misguided principles have ruined their lives.

Considered Dickens' harshest indictment of mid-19th-century industrial practices and their dehumanizing effects, this novel offers a fascinating tapestry of Victorian life, filled with the richness of detail, brilliant characterization, and passionate social concern that typify the novelist's finest creations.

 Of Dickens' work, the eminent Victorian critic John Ruskin had this to say: "He is entirely right in his main drift and purpose in every book he has written; and all of them, but especially Hard Times, should be studied with close and earnest care by persons interested in social questions."

1st US/1st.  A Weekly Journal. Conducted by Charles Dickens. Vol IX. New York: Published by T. L. McElrath & Co. [later issues "McElrath & Barker"], 1854..  Large 8vo; approx 6" x 9". HANDSOME!  3/4 brown polished calf blocked in blind.  Marbled sides.  Hubbed spine block and decorated in gilt.  Hubbed spine.  5 hubs and so six sections.  Contrasting morocco (goat) gilt lettered spine label. Thick: 600+pp (textblock is NF+).   Marbled endpapers. Very Good+ overall.  Internally Near Fine+.  Browning lower corner some leaves.  Light wear to spine leather and boards, including contact points.  Marbled sides.  Leather with handsome patina.  Book is very clean, tight, square, straight, bright, etc.

9 ½ * 6 *2 weight 2 pounds 6 ounces