The Life Of Charles Dickens, By John Forster, London: Chapman And Hall, 193, Piccadilly 1873 - 1874, in three volumes, with the imprint of Bradbury, Agnew, & Co, Printers, Whitefriars on the reverse of the title page, The Life Of Charles Dickens on the half-title, 8vo., five raised bands, gilt titles on red and black labels and geometric gilt patterns on the spine, gilt borders on the front and back covers, gilt dentelles on marbled endpapers with the bookplate of Wilson Noble on the front paste-downs,
all edges beautifully marbled; the three volumes in fine bindings in full calf by Riviere
& Son (Riviere & Son noted at the bottom of the leaf on the reverse of the front free endpaper).
Volume The First, 1812 - 1842, thirteenth edition, has a portrait of a young Dickens on the frontispiece; the frontispiece was done after a painting of Dickens by D. Maclise when Dickens was just 27, and it was engraved here by R. Graves, with corrections to the first edition noted on the page before the Table of Contents, which is 12 pages long, and there are 9 illustrations listed after the Table of Contents, and this volume is 398 pages long.
Volume The Second, 1842 - 1852, was published by Chapman and Hall in 1873, the frontispiece has a portrait of Dickens engraved by R. Graves after a painting done by W.R. Frith, when Dickens was 47 years old, with a tissue guard between the frontispiece and the title page; with three pages of corrections made in the later editions of the first volume noted just before the list of illustrations and 12 pages for the Table of Contents, and this volume is 462 page long.
Volume The Third, 1852 - 1870, Tenth Thousand, was published by Chapman and Hall in 1874, and it has a frontispiece of Dickens engraved by J.C. Armytage after the last photo of Dickens taken when he was in America in 1868 - Dickens was 56 at the time - with a tissue guard between the frontispiece and the title page; there are 13 illustrations followed by 9 pages for the Table of Contents; this volume is 552 pages long, including the Appendix and Index, and the Appendix has some uncut pages.
Each volume measures 8 1/2 x 5 3/4 in. wide, with light scuffs on the back of Volume I and on the front and back of Volume II and Volume III, and they don’t detract from the attractiveness of the set.
John Forster (1812 - 1876) was an important Victorian English biographer and literary critic who became a close friend of Charles Dickens, he was also the literary executor of Dickens’ estate and had access to virtually all of Dickens’ letters and writings, and he was considered the officially recognized biographer of Dickens because of their friendship and his handling of Dickens’ literary estate; he began this biography of Dickens shortly after Dickens died in 1870 and finished it in 1874, and this three-volume set is the primary work by which Forster is remembered.
Wilson Noble (18554 - 1917) was a barrister and Conservative Party politician in England who served as a member of Parliament (an MP) from 1886 to 1895.