Author: CALABRELLA, Baroness de.
Title: Evenings at Haddon Hall ... with illustrations from designs by George Cattermole.
Description: London, Colburn 1846. Largish octavo later half blue crushed morocco by Root; 24 handcoloured plates. An excellent, handsome, quite remarkable copy. ¶ First edition. Haddon Hall hasn't been admitted into the Gothic canon and this is almost unfair. A melange of tales - one by Ainsworth - most have more than enough blood, murder, turmoil, torment, torture and revenge to qualify. This was immensely popular through the 19th century, perhaps due to Cattermole, but I think it now has been wrongly relegated with the simpering Victorian books down the pretty end of the shelf. I couldn't find a publisher's advertisement for coloured copies so it presumably wasn't offered for sale coloured; I did find a record of a copy, also bound by Root, with the plates in two states - what these states were wasn't explained.

Keywords: literature fiction thrillers England c19th illustrated coloured plates