Prince Life; A Story for My Boy

First Edition (SD, 1855 on the Title and Copyright page). Once listed, this will be the Only first edition for sale anywhere on the Internet. The book itself is extremely rare, there being only one other copy (from 1856) for sale on the Internet. I've rated the book Good taking into account its age. You can see the covers in the photos. The front cover is in terrific shape. The gilt lettering and design is amazingly bright. The surrounding blind stamp pattern is in excellent shape. Again amazingly, the corners and edges are pretty much free of wear, no rubbing. The rear cover pretty much repeats the condition of the front cover, very clean. However, when you shift over to the spine (second photo) you'll see that there is a loss, actually three separate losses (chips). There's also a tiny bit of wear/loss at the top edge of the spine. Positively, the larger loss on the spine doesn't impact the junctures between the inside covers and their end papers. There actually no cracks or spaces between either or between any of the end papers. However, there are binding issues beginning with the juncture between the frontispiece and title page where there is a crack off the bottom edge that goes up about 1 1/2 inches at the juncture. The top 3/4's of the title page is tightly bound to the frontispiece. If you pull the title page away from the juncture where it naturally rests you can see through to the inside of the spine. And that is clearly the case at the juncture of the verso of the copyright page and its facing page, the first page of chapter I. The same 1 1/2" crack is visible coming up from the bottom edge. So there are four twined bindings spots between the pages. Right now, beginning with page 3 through to page 18 (that gathering) the only binding that is intact is the first one off the top edge. I would anticipate it detaching at some point. However, the gathering itself is bound pretty well. Between page 19 and 24 the bindings are intact. And the binding from page 25 through to the last page (which were numbered would be page 56) is pretty solid, there are no cracks or spaces between any of the pages. However, there is a wide crack between page 24 and 25, although the top twined binding, though stretched out, is still intact. The inside covers and end papers are quite foxed. Some of the foxing is quite dark. There is also a water stain off the bottom edge of a couple of the blank front end papers and it can also be seen off the bottom edge of the frontispiece (not reaching the illustration, which is titled Prince Life And The Dwarf. The water stain can also be seen off the bottom edge of the title page, although it just looks like a slightly darkened area. The pages are in pretty decent shape. There aren't any other water stains until after page 42 where an illustration has one coming off its bottom edge again not reaching the illustration. That's it for water stains. The pages are reasonably clean, with only light foxing. There are two full-page illustrations in the text, both with badly foxed tissue guards still in place. There are no markings. No attachments, and no names or writing. There are a very few teeny edge tears. G.P.R.James (1799-1860), was an English novelist and historical writer. He was for many years British Consul. He held the honorary office of British Historiographer Royal during the last years of William IV's reign. He served for a short time in the army as a lieutenant during the Hundred Days, and was wounded in a small action following The Battle of Waterloo. He travelled extensively, visiting France and Spain soon after the abdication of Napoleon. In 1825 he wrote his first, and probably his best known novel Richelieu: A Tale of France, which was not published until 1829. After reading Richelieu, and after receiving a letter from James, Walter Scott advised him to take up literature as a profession. He was also given encouragement by Washington Irving.'.…