Note 30 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.
The month of publication is conjectured in Catalogue of an Exhibition of the Works of William Makepeace Thackeray, item 36. The earliest recorded review is in the Literary World 3 (9 Dec 1848), p. 896; see Flamm, p. 59. Among surviving Harper and Brothers records (owned by Harper and Row, Inc., but now housed at Columbia University Library) is a manuscript titled "'Harper's Catalogue' 1817-1879" which lists The Great Hoggarty Diamond with the date 8 Dec. 1848.
Last modified: 4 April 2001