William Makepeace Thackeray / Richard Doyle - The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family - 1854-1855

Rare original edition of this novel given by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), published in two volumes between 1854 and 1855. It is decorated in the first printing with a engraved title, 44 wood and steel engraved plates by Richard Doyle, and numerous in-text figures.

Set in England in the decades following the events of Vanity Fair (1848), The Newcomes follows the lives of several members of the English upper middle class, the Newcomes. Like Vanity Fair, this novel is famous for its panoramic presentation of daily life and social norms of Victorian England. Notably, The Newcomes is narrated by Thackeray's alter ego, the fictional English gentleman Arthur Pendennis, who is credited as the 'editor' of this text.

Bound in attractive half-green calf leather with corner bindings, with cold-rolled fillets along the covers and edges, a finely decorated spine with small gold tools, fillets, a title piece, and volume number in gilded initials.
Satisfactory condition. Well-bound with solid bindings, leather rubbed at the cuts, corners, and heads. Some marks on the covers. The spine is slightly faded. Sporadic foxing, most plates are somewhat browned. A tear on one page with a small loss of text (a few letters). The last plate outside the text of the first volume is detached. The book needs airing. Good copy, quite rare.

William Makepeace Thackeray, born on July 18, 1811, in Alipur, Calcutta, and died on December 24, 1863, in London, was a British writer. Known for his satirical works targeting the British bourgeoisie, he was the author of, among others, Memoirs of Barry Lyndon (adapted by filmmaker Stanley Kubrick) and Vanity Fair (one of the landmark novels of English literature). He is considered one of the most important British novelists of the Victorian era.

Provenance: Ex-libris of Robert A. Dunam glued to the front pastedown and handwritten note on the front endpaper.

William Makepeace Thackeray / Richard Doyle
The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family
London: Bradbury and Evans, 1854-1855.
2 volumes in octavo (21.5 x 14 cm); 380 pages, 375 pages.