Newcomes, The

London: Bradbury and Evans, 1853. First Edition of “The Newcomes” in the Original Parts

[THACKERAY, William Makepeace]. The Newcomes. Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family. Edited by Arthur Pendennis, Esq. With Illustrations on Steel and Wood by Richard Doyle. Vol. I[-II]. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1854-1855 [i.e., October 1853-August 1855].

First edition. In the original twenty-four monthly parts in twenty-three (October 1853-August 1855). Octavo (8 13/16 x 5 5/8 inches; 225 x 143 mm.). Illustrations by Richard Doyle.

Collates nearly complete, with the plates, advertisements, and slips as called for in Van Duzer, except (truncated) for the following variations or omissions: Part IX with a two-page rather than a four-page advertisement for “Waterlow's Patent Improved” without the “Opening of the Crystal Palace, The Illustrated Crystal Palace Gazette” leaf; Part X without the inserted slip “Price One Shilling; Itinerary of the Great Northern Railway” at the beginning, as often. A few of the advertising slips are on different colored paper from those in Van Duzer.

In the original yellow printed wrappers, as issued. A minimal amount of professional restoration to some spines. The back wrapper of Part XIX has been expertly replaced with a Part XXI back wrapper, advertising “Sir Walter Scott’s Novels” rather than “Works on Gardening and Botany.”

Early ink signature on front wrapper of Part I, early ink signature of J.W. [?] on front wrapper of Part II, and early ink signature of Mr MacDonald on front wrapper of Part XXIII/XXIV. Part XII with early ink signature on verso of frontispiece and engraved title: Hy. Binmore, 437 Oxford St. London.

Overall, this set shows very well, much better than most others that we have seen. Housed in a blue cloth clamshell case lettered in gilt on spine.

The Newcomes “a novel by Thackeray, published in numbers 1853–5. The story, told by Arthur Pendennis, is concerned with the descendants of a self-made man, Thomas Newcome. His eldest son, Colonel Thomas Newcome, is a simple, unworldly soldier, who has lived most of his life in India. In contrast, his half-brothers Hobson and Brian are wealthy and pretentious. Colonel Newcome is a widower, and his only son Clive is sent home to England to be educated. When Clive is almost grown up, his father returns from India, and indulgently allows him to become an art student. Clive loves his cousin Ethel, daughter of Sir Brian Newcome, but Ethel's brother Barnes and her grandmother Lady Kew intend her to make a grand marriage. Ethel is intelligent and independent-minded, but finds it difficult to fight the pressures of the marriage-market; she allows herself to become engaged first to her cousin, Lord Kew, and, after that match is broken off, to Lord Farintosh. The disastrously unhappy marriage of Barnes, who treats his wife so badly that she runs away with a former admirer, Jack Belsize, makes Ethel decide that she will not marry at all, but will devote herself to her brother's children. Meanwhile Clive has been manœuvred into marriage to a pretty, superficial girl, Rosey Mackenzie. When Colonel Newcome's fortune is lost with the failure of the Bundelcund Bank, he and Clive and Rosey are reduced to extreme poverty, and Rosey's mother makes life so intolerable for the Colonel with her accusations and reproaches that he finally takes refuge from her by becoming a pensioner in the Grey Friars almshouse, where he dies. Rosey has also died, and Thackeray allows the reader to assume that Clive and Ethel will get married. Certain aspects of Clive's character were suggested by Leighton, whom Thackeray met in Rome” (The Oxford Companion to English Literature).

Van Duzer 147. Wolff 6696. (Inventory #: 00197)