SECTION A: Books written, co-written or translated by Robert Graves

A39 THE REAL DAVID COPPERFIELD [1933]

a First edition (copies made up for publisher’s representtives or possible trial state of the binding):

Collation: [1]8 2–268 274, 212 leaves.

p.[1] THE REAL | DAVID COPPERFIELD; p.[2] blank; p.[3] title-page; p.[4] printing, copyright and printer’s notices; pp. 5–9 FOREWORD; p.[10] blank; pp.11–418 text; pp.419–424 APPENDIX.

Price: 9s. Number of copies unknown. Published in March 1933 in light blue dust-jacket printed in black, with light blue showing through on front, back and spine panels. The lettering on the spine panel of copies exposed to sun is almost always seen changed to tan, pink or nearly white.

Notes: Elsworth Mason posits that copies with the binding stamped in gold were used by the publisher’s agents and noting the spine type for the publisher does not match the type for the title and author.

A39b. First edition (published state of the binding):

Collation: as A39a, as is the pagination.

Price: 9s. Number of copies unknown. Published in March 1933. The dust-jacket is as A39a, but commensurately larger, reflecting the larger binding.

Notes: The spine type for title, author and publisher all match.

The appendix reprints Dickens’ Chapter LXII, ‘A Light Shines on My Way.’ Though the texts of A39a and A39b are for the most part identical, the two books are not identical in purpose. A39a is a rewriting to produce a ‘real’ book, while the American edition, A39c abandons some of the plot changes made in A39a to make merely an abridged version of the novel for school use. Compare particularly the beginnings of the two Chapters XXIII, the scene with Emily at the end of Chapter XXX, the end of Chapter XXXII, Chapters LIII and LIV of the two versions of the epilogue.

A39c. First American edition (1934):

Collation: [1]8 [2]9 [3] –4]8 [5] – [17]16 [18] – [20]8, 265 leaves.

p.[i] David Copperfield; p.[ii] map of David Copperfield’s England; p.[iii] title-page; p.[iv] copyright and printing notices; p.[v] CONTENTS; p.[vi] blank; pp.[vii] viii–xxxi INTRODUCTION; p.[xxxii] blank; p.[xxxiii] David Copperfield; p. [xxxiv] blank; pp.[1] 2–474 text; pp.[475] 476–486 STUDY QUESTIONS; pp.[487]–488 GENERAL TOPICS FOR STUDY; pp.[489]–490 SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL READING; pp. [491]–[496] blank.

Price: $1.00. Number of copies undetermined. Published 2 March 1934, without dust-jacket.

Notes: The book was being reprinted as late as the 1970s, and perhaps later. See note to A39a. The title-page is a cancel, tipped in.

There was some indecision among the editors at Harcourt, Brace whether to publish Graves’s condensation of ‘David Copperfield’ as a book for general readers, or as a high school textbook. In the end, it was the textbook version that was published. A few copies of a prototype of a book for general readers were printed and bound. As with A39c, the book was edited by Merril P. Paine, but it carried the title of the English edition:

Collation: 245 leaves.

p. [iii] title-page; p. [iv] PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; pp. [v]vi-ix Foreword; p. [x] blank; p. [xi] DAVID COPPERFIELD; p. [xii] blank; p. [1]2-474 text; pp. [475-480] blank.

Price: Never issued for sale. Number of copies unknown.

Printed first quarter of 1934.

Return to Section A List