This is the essential collector's Dickens, based on the world-famous "Nonesuch Press" edition of 1937. These stunning volumes will be published in four box sets, the first set being published this autumn ready for Christmas. Thereafter, a six-volume box set will be published annually until the twenty-three-volume set is complete. The text is taken from the 1867 Chapman and Hall edition, which became known as the Charles Dickens edition. It was the last edition to be corrected by the author himself. "The Nonesuch" edition contains illustrations selected by Dickens himself by artists including Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"), George Cruikshank, John Leech, Robert Seymour and George Cattermole. The Nonesuch Press was founded by Francis Meynell in 1923 and produced some of the most elegant books published in the first half of the twentieth century. "The Nonesuch Dickens" was limited to 877 sets and each set sold for 56 guineas, the equivalent of roughly GBP 2,500 in today's money. The Scotsman observed of it 'no more handsome edition of Dickens has yet appeared; nor is it easy to conceive of any which might surpass this one'. The new "Nonesuch Dickens" reproduces the original elegance of these beautiful editions. Books are printed on natural cream shade high quality stock, are quarter bound in bonded leather with cloth sides, include a ribbon marker and feature special printed endpapers. Each book has a period style Jacket. The first set contains "Oliver Twist", "Bleak House", "Christmas Books", "David Copperfield", "Nicholas Nicholby" and "Great Expectations"/"Hard Times". INDIVIDUAL VOLUME ISBNs (each volume priced GBP 25.00): "Nicholas Nicholby" 0-7156-3473-9, "Great Expectations"/"Hard Times" 0-7156-3520-4, "Christmas Books" 0-7156-3472-0, "Oliver Twist" 0-7156-3470-4, "David Copperfield" 0-7156-3519-0, and "Bleak House" 0-7156-3471-2.