A superbly presented example of Charles Dickens’s The Chimes, the highly anticipated follow-up to A Christmas Carol and the second installment of his famous "Christmas Books" series, written to strike a sledgehammer blow "on behalf of the poor man" against social injustice, institutional callousness, and political indifference.
As a Christmas story, it purposefully shifts away from the cozy fireside redemption of Scrooge to a starker, socially charged critique of Victorian poverty, greed, and despair, using the spectral intervention of the goblins of the bells on New Year's Eve to awaken a humble, broken-spirited ticket-porter, Toby Veck, to hope, human dignity, and the urgent duty of social compassion.
The 1905 edition is exceptionally desirable because of the combination of its delicate illustrations by C. E. Brock and its deluxe publisher's full vellum binding. Executed in the height of the Edwardian Arts and Crafts aesthetic, the vellum cover is lavishly decorated in overall gilt with intricate interlaced foliage, heart-shaped motifs, and repeating rows of cherubic or angelic faces framing the titular lettering.
Bookplate of Walter Kahoe, publisher and co-founder of the Antioch Bookplate Company in 1926.
Dickens, Charles. The Chimes. A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In. With Illustrations by C. E. Brock. London. J. M. Dent & Co. New York. E. P. Dutton & Co. 1905. 167pp.
Good + to very good in original full gold decorated vellum. Slight bow to boards as usual. Some foxing to prelims and minor toning to page edges as shown. Very unusual in this state of preservation.
