Author: [PRATT (Samuel Jackson)]:
Title: The Pupil of Pleasure: Or, the New System Illustrated. Inscribed To Mrs. Eugenia Stanhope, Editor of Lord Chesterfield's Letters. By Courtney Melmoth.
Description: London: Printed for G. Robinson, and J. Bew..., 1776. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 12mo, 274 x 95 mms., pp. xv pxvi blank], 230; [iv], 252, including half-titles, contemporary speckled calf; lacks labels, covers wormed. In 1777, the reviewer, William Enfield, in The Monthly Review had some doubts about the morality of the work: "Though we are, peraps, as much convinced of the dangerous tendency of some of the principles inculcated in lord Chesterfield's letters as the Author of this work...the scenes of seduction are painted in such glowing colours. that some readers may be apt to question whether Mr. Melmoth's preparation will operate as an antidote of the poison of lord Chesterfield's writings." The Critical Review was less severe: "...the work, as a novel, is calculated to afford entertainment; and though the Author may have sometimes painted vice in colours too alluring to the fancy, he makes in the end a retribution conformabe to the interests of morality." Raven, James, Antonia Forster, Peter Garside, Rainer Schöwerling; with the assistance of Stephen Bending, Christopher Skelton-Foord and Karin Wünsche, The English Novel 1770 - 1829: A Bibliographical Survey of Prose Fiction Published in the British Isles,1776:14

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