A DAY'S RIDE: A LIFE'S ROMANCE. Complete in Two Volumes.

First edition in book form. Although described as the Second Edition on the title pages, Michael Sadleir notes that "this is the first book issue, the implied 'first edition' being the serial appearance in [Charles Dickens' journal] 'All the Year Round'." Two volumes. Finely bound in nineteenth century full dark green morocco, the spines uniformly faded to lighter brown. With five raised bands, gilt decorated compartments (lettered in gilt to two), front and rear boards triple-ruled in gilt, inner dentelles elaborately decorated in gilt. Burgundy endpapers. Upper edges gilt. Publisher's original gilt-lettered green cloth spine panels bound to the rear of each volume. In near fine condition, the bindings square and firm, the contents clean throughout. Lightly spotted to fore- and lower page block edges, occasionally to the margins of a few pages, and to the binder's blanks front and rear. A handsome set. Uncommon.

Lever wrote 'A Day's Ride' concurrently with 'One of Them', the latter serialised by Chapman and Hall, the former by Dickens in his own periodical 'All the Year Round'. In October 1859, Dickens gave Lever a free hand regarding content: "Anything in the way of fiction anything in the way of actual observation and reflection suggested by it anything about Italy – anything grave or gay about anything in the wide world, that has filtered through the mind of a man who sees the world with bright and keen eyes such as yours." By January 1860, the writing still not begun, Dickens reassured Levy that he would retain copyright and be free to reprint the work in volume form as soon as the last instalment appeared. Lionel Stevenson writes that "a negotiation with George Eliot for a serial was hanging fire, [so that] the date of publication for Lever's had to remain undecided, but Dickens would pay him for the instalments as soon as he sent them in, no matter how long they might have to be held." Dickens followed with another letter brimming with encouragement and warmth: "I put my hand in yours, and say, out of my heart, that I have never had to do with a more frank, more genial, more kind and considerate friend than I have found in you; and that I heartily bless the evening that did at last bring us together. All the little editorial troubles I have ever had in all these years, are far less than nothing to the true and deep gratification I have had in this correspondence with you. After this, you will begin to believe, my dear Lever—not only that I 'want' you now, but that I have 'wanted' such a generous spirit in a man, many a long day. And so God bless you." When Lever eventually submitted something in June, apologising for its quality, Dickens was characteristically reassuring: "I firmly believe you had no warrant whatsoever for depreciating what you were doing, and that it is full of life, vivacity, originality, and humour." One of the episodes, he added, "made me laugh to an extent and with a heartiness that I should have liked you to have seen and heard." The novel (in Stephen J. M. Browne's brief synopsis) narrates "[t]he whimsical adventures of Algernon Sydney Potts, only son of a Dublin apothecary. An extravaganza in the vein of Don Quixote, and quite unlike Lever's other works. Potts's experiences begin in Ireland, but most of them take place on the Continent." The high spirits Dickens detected in the opening instalments were, however, not sustained. The book was important to George Bernard Shaw, who describes its protagonist as "trying to live bravely, chivalrously, and powerfully by dint of mere romance-fed imagination, without courage, without means, without knowledge, without anything real except his bodily appetites." Shaw goes as far as to compare the work to 'Hamlet' as a study of character; its representation of "the conflict between real life and the romantic imagination." (Stephen J. M. Brown, 'Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels, Tales, Romances, and Folk-lore', Dublin: 1916; Edward Downey [Ed.], 'Charles Lever: His Life in Letters', Vol. I, Edinburgh and London: 1906; Lionel Stevenson, 'Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever', London: 1939; Sadleir 1402).