Dickens (Charles) The Haunted Man and The Ghost's Bargain, first edition, advertisement leaf at beginning with ink signature of Mrs. Sydney Smith, wood-engraved frontispiece and additional vignette title after Tenniel, illustrations after Leech and others, pencil drawing to vignette title, some light soiling, a few small stains, upper hinge broken and first couple of gatherings becoming loose, bookplate of Rev. Sydney Smith, original red cloth, gilt, rubbed, small stain to upper cover, slight wear to spine ends, 1848; American Notes for General Circulation, 2 vol., second edition, half-titles, 6pp. catalogue at end of vol.2, contemporary signature of N.Hibbert and long critical note ?by him in pencil on verso of initial advertisement leaf in vol.1, original blind-stamped cloth, lightly rubbed and stained, spines faded, a little cocked, 1842, 8vo (3)

⁂ Hibbert's note in the second describes it as, "The work of a moralist outré in all its descriptions, continually straining after the moral picturesque...and deserves no other praise than belongs to a cockney philosopher."

Rev. Sydney Smith (1771-1845), author, wit and friend of the Holland family of Munden House in Hertfordshire, was a progressive clergyman who was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Review. He knew and corresponded with Dickens, supported both the education of women and the abolition of slavery.