Charles DICKENS.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood. With Illustrations. London, Chapman & Hall, April 1870-September 1870. 6 issues in-8, stapled, illustrated green-blue paper covers, modern slipcase. First edition. Dickens' final novel promised to be one of his most popular when the author's death in June 1870 put an end to its continuation. The manuscript Dickens left behind allowed for three more posthumous issues, but no one knows how The Mystery of Edwin Drood would have been resolved. Copy preserved as issued. The cover of the sixth issue has the printed butterfly "Price Eighteenpence", the mark of the first printing. It is complete with the fragile "Cork Hats" advertisement printed on cork at the end of issue 2. Missing 8 pages of Chapman & Hall advertisement at the end of issue 5, as well as 4 pages at the end of issue 6 from Wilcox & Gibbs. (Hatton & Cleaver, A Bibliography of The Periodical Works of Charles Dickens, 1973, pp. 371-384.)