THE NEWCOMES. VOLS. I & 2. MEMOIRS OF A MOST RESPECTABLE FAMILY

BRADBURY & EVANS 1854 -1855, 1854-01-01. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. 0x0x0. 2 volumes. First edition in original publishers cloth. Foxing to endpapers, illustrated title page and frontispiece, else text is good. Edges are rubbed. Binding is sound, condition overall good. A collectible copy. "Perhaps one of the novel's greatest strengths is that it contains hundreds of references to the popular and educated culture of the time and thus gives a better idea than most contemporary novels of what it was like to live in England then â_x0080__x0094_ almost a miniature education in the Victorian era. Thackeray mentions poets, painters, novelists (some of the characters are reading Oliver Twist), politics, and other people, events and things both familiar and obscure to the 21st-century reader â_x0080__x0094_ and does so in a natural way that enhances the story". (wiki) Illustrations by Richard Doyle. Doyle was a friend of Thackeray who had him illustrate several novels. From a famous family of illustrators, Richard was the "Uncle Dicky" of Arthur Conan Doyle's memoirs. Rather than depicting the â_x0080__x009c_lower classesâ_x0080__x009d_ in a condescending way, Richardâ_x0080__x0099_s observations of the crowds showed his intrigue and interest in their lives, which is unsurprising since they differed so greatly from his upbringing. He was most famous however for his fairy illustrations and his early work with Punch magazine; he drew the cover of the first issue, and designed the magazine's masthead, a design that was used for over a century.