London: Chapman and Hall, 1870. First edition in book form, first printing. This is a very good copy in original cloth. Issued in Smith's binding variant A, with the sawtooth border to the front board, and the rear board stamped in black rather than in blind. The cloth has some very light surface marks, some light bumping at the spine tips, and some very minor cracking at the backstrip. The gilt titling is so slightly rubbed in places, but remains bright and beautiful. Containing a portrait frontispiece by J. H. Baker, vignette title page and 12 plates by S. L. Fildes. Internally, the text is bright and clean, but with foxing typical to this title, though not extreme this appears limited to the preliminaries at its worst. There is a neat contemporary ownership inscription in pencil. Overall, this is a very good copy. The Mystery of Edwin Drood was to be published in twelve monthly instalments, but dickens had completed only six before his death in 1870. The finished sections of the novel were compiled, and published in the present book form.