Dickens, Charles [1812 - 1870] — BLEAK HOUSE

London: Bradbury and Evans, 1853. 1st book edition. Custom bound in a deep,and lovely, full hunter-green leather binding by Bayntun, elaborate gilt decorated spine, gilt stamped Dickens bust to front board, gilt facsimile signature to rear board, gilt dentelles, AEG, marbled eps. xvi, 624 pp. Frontis, engraved title & 38 inserted plates by Hablot K. Browne. 8vo. 8-1/2" x 5-1/2". Text - VG+ [some foxing, though the plates appear to have been washed sometime in the past]. Binding - Fine. A handsome volume. At the centre of Bleak House is a long-running legal case in the Court of Chancery, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which comes about because a testator has written several conflicting wills. In a preface to the 1853 first edition, Dickens said there were many actual precedents for his fictional case. One such was probably Thellusson v Woodford, in which a will read in 1797 was contested and not determined until 1859. Though many in the legal profession criticised Dickens's satire as exaggerated, Bleak House helped support a judicial reform movement that culminated in the enactment of legal reform in the 1870s.