Hunted Down.

London: printed by C. Whiting; Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson and Brothers; London: John Camden Hotten,, 1860; 1861; 1870.. Dickens's short story Hunted Down in three of its first appearances: the first British edition in serial form, the first British edition in book form, and the first US edition in book form, housed together in a custom-made box. Hunted Down is based on the case of the notorious poisoner Thomas Wainewright, whom Dickens met following his arrest in 1837. Queen's Quorum describes the story as Dickens's "most important contribution to the detective short story... a fascinating tale of realistic detection, still technically rewarding to all students of the genre... the story transforms real life into 'exquisite' Victorian melodrama". Hunted Down first appeared in the New York Ledger in September 1859. It was first published in Britain in All the Year Round in two weekly issues, 4 and 11 August 1860. It was first published in book form in the US by T. B. Peterson in 1861 along with other Dickens stories, and in Britain by John Camden Hotten in 1870 as a stand-alone story. 3 copies (ATYR: 2 numbers unbound; US: original brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt, covers panelled and lettered in blind; UK: original wrappers printed in black), housed together in blue cloth solander box. Recent bookplate of collector Peter Russell mounted to inside cover of box, contemporary pencilled signature to each number of All The Year Round. Slight wear to spines of book form copies, All The Year Round numbers a little spotted and leaves loosening. Overall very good. Queen's Quorum pp. 16-17; Eckel p. 198 (Eckel incorrectly gives the date of All the Year Round appearance as April rather than August).