310

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Memoirs of Grimaldi.

London: Richard Bentley, 1838.
First edition, first issue, two octavo volumes; without the "grotesque" border on the final plate and with the sixth plate incorrectly listed as opposite page 128 on the inserted "List of Embellishments"; illustrated with an engraved frontispiece portrait of Grimaldi by W. Greatbach and 12 etched plates by George Cruikshank; bound in original pink publisher's cloth embossed with a floral pattern, spines gilt-stamped, yellow coated endpapers (occasional marginal foxing to plates; scattered foxing throughout, one or two tiny marginal stains, a few creases; pale spotting and stains to cloth, spines lightly sunned, top edges somewhat soiled, extremities bumped, hinge just cracked in vol. I, inked ownership signature to front flyleaf of each volume); housed in a custom brown morocco pull-top box and chemises; 7 7/8 x 4 7/8 in.

This entertaining autobiography of the esteemed nineteenth-century clown Joseph Grimaldi was edited by a young Charles Dickens under his nickname "Boz." Grimaldi was one of the most well-known figures of the Regency period stage, a skilled pantomimist whose mischievous performances often satirized the goings-on of London society. 

Eckel pp. 140-141; Podeschi/Gimbel B64.

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