The edition is being printed by Messrs. T. and A. Constable of Edinburgh, His Majesty’s Printers, in a type newly cast for the purpose, upon pure rag paper of the highest quality.
THE TEXT.—The text used is that which was corrected by Charles Dickens himself in the last two years of his life, and therefore contains all the copyright emendations which he made when the volumes passed for the last time through his hands.
The edition contains all the collected papers from whatever source that seemed worthy of permanent association with the name of their author—from The Examiner, Daily News, Household Words, All the Year Round, over 130 in all—the most notable of these being all Dickens’s contributions to Household Words, some 90 in number, which have been identified for the first time by indisputable evidence.
THE ILLUSTRATIONS.—As regards the choice of illustrations, the Publishers’ plan has been to include only those pictures which were drawn for their editions during the life of the author, and which may therefore be held to have received his personal approbation. Under this arrangement they are able to reproduce for the first time in a Collected Edition a number of illustrations not usually associated with the novels, and the utmost care has been taken to do justice to the artists’ workmanship. The original illustrations are printed from a duplicate set of the steel plates on the best India paper and mounted on plate paper—a process which gives a greatly refined value to the delicacy of the original steel plates.
THE ARTISTS.—Dickens, as is well known, took the keenest possible interest in the illustrations to his books, and was very particular over the choice of the artists. At the same time, his work offered such infinite possibilities to pen and pencil, that all the best talent of his time was eager to be employed in his service, with the result that the muster-roll of the artists represented in the present edition contains the names of all the leading masters of Black and White throughout the Victorian Era. It may be said without exaggeration that the illustrations alone form an historical picture gallery of their time, as will be admitted when the following list is studied and understood.
ARTISTS REPRESENTED.
George Cruikshank.
Hablot K. Browne (Phiz).
Robert Seymour.
John Leech.