Thackeray's “The Virginians" First Appearance, 24 Original Parts, 1857

THACKERAY, William Makepeace. The Virginians: A Tale of the Last Century. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1857–1859.

FIRST EDITION, FIRST APPEARANCE. Original twenty-four (24) parts, complete. Small octavo. Twenty-four (monthly) serial issues in their original yellow paper wraps. First issue point with “actresses” for “ancestresses” on p. 207, line 15 (Part VII). Illustrated with numerous contemporary advertisements in each issue.

Contents clean and sound, with contemporary ownership name to upper margins of five parts. Minor skillful restoration to the lower portion of the front wrapper of Part I. Twenty-four (24) parts, retaining the majority of frontispiece, vignette title page, advertisements, and 40 engraved plates. Complete wrappers and text for all issues. Wrappers lightly toned with scattered soiling and small chips, as usual. Housed in a custom quarter-leather clamshell box.

The Virginians was Thackeray’s final completed novel, extending the world of his previous novel, Henry Esmond, into colonial America during the Seven Years’ War. The Virginians combines historical narrative with the reflective social observation characteristic of his later fiction. This original-parts set preserves Thackeray’s original text of The Virginians as first published, and also provides an historical artifact of the Victorian publication tradition through its surviving wrappers and numerous contemporary advertisements.

A remarkable survival of Thackeray's original work, housed in an elegant custom-made clamshell case.