Barnaby Rudge; [together with] Hard Times.

DICKENS, Charles. Barnaby Rudge; [together with] Hard Times. London: Chapman and Hall, [1874]. ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY EDITION, reissue of the 1858 Library Edition, issued after Dickens’s death with the original illustrations restored. Two volumes, complete. Octavo (8vo). 475, 471 pp. Contemporary Victorian half brown calf over marbled boards, spines gilt in compartments with five raised bands, red and green morocco labels, marbled endpapers and marbled edges. Illustrated by Hablot Knight Browne (“Phiz”), George Cattermole, and Frederick Walker. Frontispieces with tissue guards and plates throughout; all plates and tissue guards present. Complete in these two volumes for Barnaby Rudge, with Hard Times included in Volume II. Barnaby Rudge, one of Dickens’s two historical novels, is set against the Gordon Riots of 1780 and combines political violence, mob psychology, mystery, and romance. Hard Times, first published in 1854, is Dickens’s great industrial novel, set in the fictional manufacturing town of Coketown and attacking the dehumanizing effects of rigid utilitarianism, factory life, and an education founded on “Facts” alone. Together the two works show strikingly different sides of Dickens: the historical novelist of social upheaval and the contemporary critic of Victorian industrial society. Contents clean and unmarked with light, even toning. Bindings remain sound and square. Contemporary calf and marbled boards with moderate shelf wear to the edges and corners and rubbing to the spine crowns and tails. Gilt decoration and morocco labels remain bright and attractive. Very Good Victorian illustrated editions, preserving the celebrated illustrations associated with Dickens’s works in handsome contemporary bindings. [Attributes: Hard Cover; Illustrated; Two Volume Set.].…