DICKENS, Charles.. Sunday Under Three Heads. As it is; as Sabbath bills would make it; as it might be made. By Timothy Sparks.. London: Chapman and Hall, 1836, 1836.

Price: US$7438.29 + shipping

Description: First edition, presentation copy from the publisher, inscribed on the front wrapper "with the publisher's compliments". This is one of only two presentation copies we have traced. The other, inscribed by Dickens to Thomas Mitton, was sold in the Edward Newton sale (lot 491), the catalogue noting "there does not seem to be a record of the sale of any other presentation copy", and was afterwards in the Suzannet sale. The young Dickens's pseudonymous political pamphlet defends the right of the poor man to a free Sabbath, in opposition to a proposed law prohibiting all work and all recreation on a Sunday. "Dickens saw the bill as a piece of class legislation, cynically designed to forbid innocent amusements to the poor on their one day of rest, without interfering with the pleasures of the well-to-do. the pamphlet, which displays Dickens's characteristic sympathy for ordinary people, close observation of actual lives, and vigourous rhetoric, was still at press when [the] Bill was rejected by the House on 18 May, but it received favourable notice in the press and articulates convictions which he held passionately throughout his life" (Schlicke, p. 557). Eckel p. 102; Gimbel B30. Paul Schlicke, ed., The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens, 2011. Small octavo. Original brown wrappers printed in black, neatly rebacked. Housed in blue cloth chemise within blue morocco slipcase. With 3 illustrations by Hablot K. Browne (Phiz), who also designed the heads on the front cover and title page. Slight tape residue to front endpapers. A very good copy.

Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom