Real Life in London; or, The Rambles and Adventures of Bob Tallyho, esq., and His Cousin, the Hon. Tom. Dashall, through the Metropolis; Exhibiting a Living Picture of Fashionable Characters, Manners, and Amusements in High and Low Life [2 VOLUMES]

Two volumes, octavo (published in 1821 and 1822). [2: title, verso blank], [iii]-x, [3]-656; [2: title, verso blank], [i]-ix, [1: blank], [3]-668 pp. Hand-colored engraved frontispiece and pictorial hand-colored title in each volume, plus 30 hand-colored aquatint plates in the text. Later full crimson morocco, triple-ruled in gilt; spine with raised bands, lettered in gilt; gilt turn-ins; all edges gilt. Spine extremities and bands rubbed. Occasional mild toning and smudges. Complete with all 28 text plates called for in the Directions to the Binder, along with an additional two plates, "Tom and Bob Catching a Charley Napping" (Abbey no. 34) and "St. George's Day, Presentation at the Levee" (Abbey no. 31). A very good or better set, in a handsome signed binding by Riviere and Son. First edition (later issue) of this imitation of Pierce Egan's Life in London (1821). While sometimes attributed to Egan, the work was possibly written by John Badcock. "Out of the sixty-five imitations of it which Egan stated that he had reckoned, the most important was Real Life in London. which was published in sixpenny numbers in 1821, with excellent illustrations by Heath, Alken, Dighton, Rowlandson and others. Real Life in London is a pleasanter book than its prototype. Some have held that Egan wrote it; but the author had a purer style, a cleaner mind and a wider knowledge of London than Egan" (The Cambridge History of English and American Literature). "From a bibliographical point of view, one of the most complicated and bewildering books ever published, rivaling Pickwick in the tangle of variant states that exist both in text and plates. The work had a tremendous success, probably out-rivaling in popularity its prototype. A difficult feature of the book is that two printers. printed copies, textually the same page by page, with only minor variations in the settings, and this, coupled with the fact that during the eight or nine years it was being reprinted, makes the whole vast output all 'first editions' but with innumerable states and variants that continually overlap one with the other" (Abbey). "Originally published in 56 parts, on completion the work was issued in boards. Later copies were bound in publisher's cloth. A book full of contrarities and difficulties for the bibliographer, there being innumerable variations of the plates. The difficulties are further increased by many copies in modern bindings having been completed or made up of different issues giving combinations that are not true variations" (Tooley). Printers: R. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street (vol. 1); A. Applegath Stamford-street (vol. 2). Second volume title and imprint: Real Life in London; or, The Further Rambles and Adventures [etc.] - Printed for Jones & Co. 3, Warwick Square. 1822. References: Abbey, Life 280 (1821-22 first edition); J. H. Slater, Illustrated Sporting Books (1899), p. 96; Tooley 198 (1821-22 first edition).…