First Edition vs First Printing of Vanity Fair

Peter L. Shillingsburg, Professor of English, Mississippi State University

Note 14 to Chapter 5 of the author's Pegasus in Harness: Victorian Publishing and W. M. Thackeray, which University Press of Virginia published in 1992. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.

By "first edition" I mean all printings of Vanity Fair using the type act for the book as it appeared in parts from 1January 1847 through 1 July 1848 (see Bowers, pp 379ff.). Some collectors use the term to mean only the "first printing," as seems to be the case with David A. Randall.

Last modified: 4 April 2001