The Personal History of David Copperfield

London: Bradbury & Evans, 1850. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. 1st edition. Original (publisher's) green cloth, variant stamping to the binding not recorded by Smith, and though variant often means later, this copy can't be later, as it has the 1850 date on both title pages (the key 1st issue point) and 19 of the 20 internal 1st state points listed by Smith, a percentage greater than many copies in the common binding that Smith does describe and picture. Endpapers toned, short tear to the half title mended, foxing to the margins of the plates (more so at the beginning and end) but the text is clean and let me be unmistakable about what this is. It's otherwise in fine condition, startlingly bright, unfaded, the covers unmarked, and never abused, and rare like this, and you will watch many birthdays pass by before you see another copy that looks like our copy, with an unfaded spine, and intact, unrepaired inner paper hinges, and get this: Copperfield in cloth is the most difficult Dickens novel to acquire in fine condition confirmed by Michael Sadleir who assembled the most comprehensive collection of Victorian novels in cloth, and from his experience he provided us with 2 lists of comparative scarcities for Dickens' novels in cloth, one of them ranking their scarcity regardless of condition and another ranking their scarcity in fine condition, and on that list of Dickens' novels in fine condition Davie Copperfield is ranked first over, even, the notoriously elusive 1st editions, fine in cloth, of Pickwick Papers and Great Expectations).