First edition, primary issue (both half-titles present) of the story of Louis Trevelyan whose steadfast faith in his conviction that his wife has been unfaithful - 'He knew he was right' - drives him to child abduction and then turns him into a paranoid madman: 'nothing could be more convincing than the gradual intensification of Trevelyan's obsession from a rectitudinous egoism to the isolation of madness…' (Allen, The English Novel). The deft transformation of Trevelyan is brought into relief by the staunch figure of his wife Emily, and her attempts to resist his ever wilder charges and actions.

First edition, primary issue (both half-titles present) of the story of Louis Trevelyan whose steadfast faith in his conviction that his wife has been unfaithful - 'He knew he was right' - drives him to child abduction and then turns him into a paranoid madman: 'nothing could be more convincing than the gradual intensification of Trevelyan's obsession from a rectitudinous egoism to the isolation of madness…' (Allen, The English Novel). The deft transformation of Trevelyan is brought into relief by the staunch figure of his wife Emily, and her attempts to resist his ever wilder charges and actions.

The accompanying pictures are by the accomplished genre painter Marcus Stone, who supported his successful painting career with book illustration, largely at the suggestion of Dickens.