TONY BUTLER. Complete in Three Volumes.

First edition, first printing. Three 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. Half titles to all volumes. The 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. Very 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 and uncommon set.

By the early 1860s, Lever was disenchanted with his regular publishers, Chapman and Hall. His friend, Charles Dickens, who shared both publisher and his regular illustrator, "Phiz", with Lever, had been acting as a mediator between Lever and the publishers. "It was therefore fitting", Lionel Stevenson writes, "that when 'Barrington' [published by Chapman and Hall in 1864] ended its serial publication in December [1863], the dedication should be to Dickens, a gesture which not only acknowledged Lever's gratitude for recent kindnesses but also disposed of elusive rumours of jealousy which had been in the air ever since their first unfortunate interchange of letters more than twenty years before." Among the favourable responses to 'Barrington' was a letter from the publisher, John Blackwood, to whom Lever decided to pitch his next, still germinal, novel: "I have a half-novel, half-romance, of an Irish Garibaldian in my head—only the opening chapters written. What would you say to it?" Blackwood agreed to publish the work which became 'Tony Butler' anonymously, circumventing thereby Lever's contractual obligations to Chapman and Hall. Set in the north of Ireland and the continent, the novel relates the story of the the eponymous Tony, whose posting with the diplomatic services prompts a series of adventures, some set during the Garibaldian war. Lever was pleased with the novel and upon learning that the reviews were not enthusiastic fell into what Stevenson describes as a "deep depression" until his original confidence in the work "inspired him to defy the critics with declarations that Tony 'is a deal too good for the stupid public'". Michael Sadlier notes that Chapman and Hall issued a 'New Edition' of Tony Butler in 1872, using original sheets from Blackwood but with new prelims, a curious arrangement no doubt owing to the first edition's 'covert' publication. (Lionel Stevenson, 'Dr. Quicksilver : The Life of Charles Lever', London: 1939) (Sadleir 1423).