A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas

Dickens_Christmas Carol_Binding.jpg
Dickens_Christmas Carol_Title page.jpg

Creator

Charles Dickens

Title

A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas

Coverage

London

Publisher

Chapman & Hall

Date

1844 [but 1843]

Subject

Original brown publishers’ cloth.

Description

First edition, first impression, Todd’s first issue. Rare state exhibiting the title-page printed in red and green with a date of 1844, yellow endpapers, “Stave I” as the first chapter heading, balance of text uncorrected. 

Early printed copies of A Christmas Carol had the title-page in red and green before Dickens changed it to red and blue. Calhoun and Heaney surmised it was because the shade of green was “about as festive as a stale olive.” Published copies of the first edition, first issue, show both variants, probably due to the binding process.