About the Book:

The original manuscript of the novel, which appeared in 33 monthly installments between 1837 and 1839, has never before been reproduced in printed form. With this manuscript, all 474 folios – the only ones that survived after the author’s death – are finally presented to the public in a deluxe edition.

In this work, the pages formerly worked on by Charles Dickens are reproduced in a graphically-restored version, accompanied by George Cruikshank’s iconic illustrations and prefaced with a foreword by Simon Callow. More than mere relics, they are a living testimony to the development of the narrative and to Dickens’s success. The serialised novel form imposes tight constraints on the writer, as it asks him to leave the reader in suspense at the end of every chapter while maintaining a coherent plot, all without the possibility of going back to make corrections.

About the Author:

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near Portsmouth, where his father worked as a clerk. Living in London in 1824, Dickens was sent by his family to work in a blacking-warehouse, and his father was arrested and imprisoned for debt. Fortunes improved and Dickens returned to school, eventually becoming a parliamentary reporter. His first piece of fiction was published by a magazine in December 1832, and by 1836 he had begun his first novel, The Pickwick Papers. He focused his career on writing, completing fourteen highly successful novels, as well as penning journalism, shorter fiction and travel books. He died in 1870.

About the Publisher:

SP Books – standing for Éditions des Saints Pères – was founded in Saint-Germain-des-Prés by young publishers Jessica Nelson & Nicolas Tretiakow with the aim of creating a unique collection of great manuscripts. SP Books was born from our passion for outstanding stories, beautiful books, and above all, the original manuscripts of great works. As our lives grow increasingly digital, SP Books are committed to creating a reading experience that is at once revelatory, intimate and aesthetic: to restore the magic of handwriting to great works, that can be revisited and kept forever.

Details:

25.5 x 35.5 cm, 552 pages
Bottle green, large format handmade slipcase.
Limited numbered edition,1,000 copies

For more information, email books@heywoodhill.com.