THACKERAY (William Makepeace). Vanity fair. A Novel without a Hero. With illustrations on steel and wood by the author. London: Bradbury and Evans, 11, Bouverie Street, 1849. Demy 8vo; half-title not called for, but bound up without the initial blank; frontispiece with tissue guard, engraved and letterpress titles; thirty-eight full page plates; numerous engraved initials and vignettes in the text; half dark green calf, ruled blind on sides, , tooled blind, ruled and lettered gilt, on spine, oil-marbled sides, sprinkled edges, end-papers faced brown. Slight rubbing of calf; a few plates foxed, mostly lightly, but with offsetting onto facing leaves; otherwise a nice copy.

First edition in book form not bound from the parts, earliest prelims., partial later state of text. The bibliography of this book is extremely complex, and has been the subject of an extended study by Peter L. Shillingsburg (V. Studies in Bibliography, University of Virginia, Vol.34, 1981, p.118 et seq.). Shillingsburg identifies six variant title-pages, to which our own experience can add a further one (intermediate between his third and fourth): the first, issued with the first impression of the parts, being dated 1848; the second, printed, apparently in July 1848, to accompany the first issue in book form, being dated 1849 (it being the custom at that time with books issued during the latter part of a year to give them the date of the year following); the third, also dated 1849, being probably printed with the second complete re-printing of the book in September 1848; and the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, though (except pssibly the fifth) subsequent, all being dated 1848. Parts were still being reprinted as late as 1865 (eighth printing), and almost any combination of gatherings (and hence text states) may be found. The present copy is printed from stereo plates throughout, and has the earlier of the two 1849 title-pages. The gatherings, where further means of differentiation have been found, correspond to Shillingsburg's second printing for gatherings D, F, G, H, I, K, M, N, P, AA, BB, FF, GG, KK, LL, MM, OO, and PP; to his third printing for gatherings O, Q, S, T, U, X, and II; and to his fourth printing for gatherings C, R, Y, Z and DD. This copy is interesting in having an unusually large number of gatherings that do not correspond to any of the states Shillingsburg records - and in general the variance would seem to characterise early states. Gathering B is as Shillingsburg's third printing, except that p.10, l.17 reads ‘seen,' not ‘seen;', as in his second printing. Gathering E is as Shillingsburg's second printing, except that p.50, ten lines from the foot, has the reading ‘hacknev-coach', never noted by Shillingsburg (but which might distinguish between the second and third printings). Gathering L is as Shillingsburg's fourth printing, except that the chapter head to p.151 has a normal top margin as in all the earlier printings; and p.156, l.5, has the reading ‘done;' as in the first printing. There are at least six variants of this gathering (Shillingsburg records four), and we are unable to suggest a logical sequence. Gathering CC is as Shillingsburg's second printing, except that p.395, ll.12-11 from foot, reads ‘ o / to his' not ‘to / to his', a state not recorded by Shillingsburg, and that p.399, last line, reads ‘"It 's' as in the first printing. Gathering NN is as Shillingsburg's second printing, except that p.560, last line, reads ‘the German' as in the first printing. This is now accepted by Shillingsburg as the true second printing, his ‘second' being in fact the third. Gathering QQ is as Shillingsburg's fourth printing, except that p.602, l.4, has the reading ‘William, was' instead of ‘William was' as in his second and third printings, or ‘William, he was', as in his first. This is a very puzzling reading if Shillingsburg's ordering is correct: it would make sense if this were the second, Shillingsburg's fourth the third, and Shillingsburg's second the fourth! Finally, gathering RR is as Shillingsburg's second printing, except that the imprint is present at the foot of p.624, as in his first printing. We understand from Shilingsburg that the presence of this imprint is to be taken as characteristic of the second printing, his second printing, in which it is absent, being in fact the third. Comparison of the gatherings as given above with Shillingsburg's Printing Schedule, tentatively suggests that the present copy ought to have been issued in the Autumn or Winter of 1848.

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