William Harrison Ainsworth - The Constable de Bourbon

London, Chapman & Hall, 1866. First edition. Cloth. A scarce first edition of this novel by the prolific William Ainsworth Not seen at auction since 1978. In the publisher's original cloth. Ainsworth had intended to be a lawyer, but found that it held no attraction for him. He devoted himself to journalism and writing novels instead. He was a significant member of literary circles, and notably became close friends with Dickens in the 1830s. Overall he published 39 books. This novel is set in 16th century France, and follows the story of Charles III, the Duke of Bourbon and Auvergne. Charles was the last of the feudal French lords to openly oppose the King of France. Their split occured after a dispute about the division of Charles' inheritance. Seeing himself the likely loser of the dispute, Charles made a secret pact with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. This plan came to nothing, but he entered the Emperors service, and in 1524 ejected the French from Lombardy and fought at the battle of Pavia. He was then present at the sack of Rome by the Imperial army in 1527, in which action he died. Direct from the library of the late Hugh Selbourne MD (1906-1973) a noted book collector and diarist. Collated: complete In the original cloth with gilt lettering to the spines. The extremities are somewhat bumped, and there is some wear to the head and tail of the spines. The cloth has come away from the backstrip of the first volume, though is still attached at the front joint. With an ink-less library stamp to the front free endpaper of volume one. Internally, the first and last few pages of each volume are spotted. Otherwise generally clean aside from very mild age-toning. Generally firmly bound. Good . Ill.: None. Good .

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