HAMILTON (Anthony), Count:

History of May-Flower. A Circassian Tale. Second Edition.

Salisbury: Printed by J. Easton; for E. Newberry..., 1796. 12mo, pp. iv, [ii], [v] - xi [xii blank], 196, engraved portrait of Hamilton as frontispiece, contemporary tree calf, recently rebacked with plain spine; lacks half-title, plate, and adverts leaf at end. Hamilton published Histoire de fleur d'épine in 1730, and this English translation first appeared in 1793. Hamilton is identified as the author in this second edition. Reviewing the first edition, the Monthly Review commented, "We recommend...the pretty tale of May Flower to the perusal of such of our readers as are disposed to enjoy an hour's light amusement, without calling themselves too strictly to account, when it is past. The work is elegantly translated." Roscoe A210. 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, 1793: 20.

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N° du livre: 10463

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction fable literature

[HAWKESWORTH (John)]:

Almoran and Hamet: An Oriental Tale.

London: Printed for H. Payne, and W. Cropley, at Dryden's Head in Pater-noster Row. 1761 FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. Small 8vo, 157 x 95 mms., pp. vii (misfolded), 146 [147 Errata, 148 blank]; [iv], 156, contemporary calf, with darkened red and black labels; front joint volume 1 cracked and tender, front joint volume 2 amateurishly repaired, slight wear to extremities. John Hawkesworth (1720 - 1773) published this very popular work in 1761. It was written originally as a drama for produciion by David Garrick, but was transformed into narrative fiction when Garrick became concerned about production costs. An obvious model for the work was Samuel Johnson's Rasselas, but with genies and magic spells it is indeed a rather different work. Karina Williamson in her Oxford DNB entry recalls that "Comparing the two, Thomas Percy thought Johnson superior 'in style, and in having confined his narrative within the Limits of possibility', but Hawkesworth 'contrived to interest his readers more, by introducing a very pleasing Love-Story'." The Critical Review commented: "The piece before us is the performance of a gentleman, who has often agreeably entertained the public, and always made amusement subservient to the best purposes of humanity. This tale, which is dedicated, by permission, to the King abounds with sentiment, and teems with moral as well as political instruction."

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N° du livre: 9915

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction orientalism literature

HAZLITT (William):

Liber Amoris: Or, The new Pygmalion.

London, Printed for John Hunt..., 1823. FIRST EDITION, ?first issue. 12mo, 189 x 107, pp. iv, 192, and 20 blank leaves following last page of text, engraved title-page, contemporary half calf, marbled boards, gilt spine (rubbed), red and black morocco labels, with the arboreal bookplate of Lewis Kennedy Morse on the front paste-down end-paper and his autograph and date, 1918, on the recto of the front free end-paper. Morse (1869 - 1930) was the author of Melodies of English Verse. When Hazlitt met the daughter of his landlady, Sarah Walker, he fell in love with her instantly - and hopelessly. Barry Cornwall (aka B. W. Proctor) wrote of his infatuation, "To this girl [Hazlitt] gave all his valuable time, all his wealthy thoughts, and all the loving frenzy of his heart. For a time, I think that on this point he was substantially insane" Keynes 67. The bibliographical points that Keynes makes are not easily resolved in this instance. The title-page is a different paper from the text and has a smooth surface; but the inner edge is not pasted onto the following leaf. Neither D1 nor G8 appears to be a cancel: there are no visible stubs and the leaves are not pasted onto adjacent leaves.

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N° du livre: 9290

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction autobiography literature

[?HELVETIUS (Claude Adrien)]:

The Philosophy of Pleasure; or, the History of a Young Lady, of Luxurious Temperament and Prurient Imagination who experiences repeatedly the Dangers of Seduction, and whose escapes from the Snares of Love are truly wonderful, depicting many and various Luscious Scenes with her Lovers, and proving herself to be the Child of Nature Improved by Change. Freely translated from the original French.

London: Printed for T Becket, Corner of the Adelphi, in the Strand 1774. ['Rochester Series of Reprints [limited to 100 copies]. No III. London; D. Cameron, 1884] [1884] 12mo, 168 x 100 mms., pp. 307 [308 blank], 19th century half red morocco, gilt title on spine, top edge gilt; front hinge cracked and tender. I am obliged to report that the promise of salacious and erotic in the events of the novel is not kept. Becket published in 1774 a novel attributed to Helvetius, The Child of Nature: Improved by Chance. A Philosophical Novel. The text here is a reprint of Becket's 1774 text.

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N° du livre: 10132

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction seduction literature

HOWITT (William):

The Life and Adventures of Jack of the Mill: Commonly Called Lord Othmill,: Created for his eminent Service, Baron Waldeck, and Knight of Kitcottie. A Fireside Story.

London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longman, 1844. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8vo, 170 x 105 mms.,pp. [v] vi - xvi, 263 [264 blank], [8 adverts]; [iv], 276, 32 pages adverts,including half-titles, 40 wood-cut illustrations by G. F. Sargeant, original green cloth, with gilt front covers showing Jack doing somersaults for the benefit of farm animals, rear covers embossed cloth; tops and bases of spines snagged, some general wear to binding, and closed split to inner margin at pages 272 - 273 in volume 2. Each title-page has the printed name "Mary Power" pasted just above the illustration, and with some curious verse on the verso of the rear free end-paper in the second volume.

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N° du livre: 9481

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction juvenile literature

INGELO (Nathanael):

Bentivolio and Urania: The Fourth Edition, with large Amendments. Wherein all the Obscure Words throughout the Book are interpreted in the Margin, which makes this much more delightful to read than the former Editions.

London, Printed by A. M. and R. R., [i. e., Anne Maxwell and Robert Roberts] for Dorman Newman..., 1682. Folio, 320 x 200 mms., pp. [xii], 171 [172 blank]. BOUND WITH: Bentivolio and Urania. The Second Part, In Two Books. The Fourth Edition. London, Printed by R. T. and R. H. [Evan Tyler and Ralph Holt] for Dorman Newman, 1682. Folio, pp. [xii], 219 [220 blank, 221 - 236 Index] bound in full contemporary calf, red leather label; top of spine chipped. A good copy with a contemporary ownership inscription in messy ink, "Tho: Lucas His Booke." Ingelo (1620/12 - 1683), though born in Bristol, attended Edinburgh University and received his first degree in 1641. He was incorporated at Cambridge in 1644, held a number of posts there, but left in left in 1646 or 1647 to be minister of All Saints, Bristol. His congregation did not much like his dandified dress, nor his love of music (full disclosure: I became a "fan" when I read his declaration that "take away his Musick, take away his life"), and he was later appointed to a fellowship at Eton in1650. In his fine ODNB entry, Ian William McLellan records that he "accompanied Bulstrode Whitelocke on the Swedish embassy (1653–4) as one of his chaplains and as rector chori.... Whitelocke described Ingelo as 'a Person of admirable Abilities in the Work of the Ministery and … a well Studied Scholar, perfect in the Latin tongue, Conversant in the Greek and Hebrew and could speak good Italian, he was much delighted in Musick … and carried persons and instruments with him for that Recreation'." The only Ingelow that the Oxford Companion to English Literature (1985) notices is the poet Jean Ingelow (1820 - 1897). Ditto, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (1993). Anne Maxwell (died 1684) was a prominent printer in seventeenth century London. She inherited a printing house from her husband, David, who died in 1665. She successfully ran this, producing at least 122 texts between 1665 and 1675 William Wordsworth had a later copy of Bentivolio and Urania in his library.

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N° du livre: 10404

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction women prose

[JENNER Charles)]:

Letters from Altamont in the Capital, to His Friend in the Country.

London: Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, in the Strand, 1767. ?FIRST EDITION. 12mo, 156 x 96 mms., pp. xi [xii blank], 272, contemporary calf, red leather label; binding slightly worn, corners crushed, front joint slightly cracked, but firm; a good copy, with two inscriptions on the title-page in the same hand: "Cavendish Socity/ 1767/" and "J Young." Reviewed in The Critical Review for 1767: "These letters are in general written with taste and sentiment; and contains several pertinent remarks on the manners of t he Capital. They afford some instances of that pleasing simplicity of thought, which an observation of the world may naturally be supposed to waken in the mind of a person who has lived extracted from society; and an acquaintance with false refinement; and whose understanding is untainted with the prejudice of popular customs, as his heart with the depravity of mankind." The notice in The Monthly Review was rather less bland and more perceptive: "As the the merit of his observations, we shall briefly say, that in our opinion they speak the juvenility of the Writer; from whom better things may be expected, when farther experience, and more extensive knowlege shall have matured his judgment." The writer and poet Charles Jenner, who was also the author of libretti for Handel, including The Messiah, was 41 in 1767.

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N° du livre: 10139

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction letters literature

JOHNSON (Samuel):

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. A Tale. By Dr. Johnson Two Volumes in One.

Dublin: Printed by T. Henshall..., n. d. [1795-6]. FIRST HENSHALL EDITION. 2 volumes in 1. 12mo (in 6s), 168 x 88 mms., pp. 71 [72 blank]; [ii], 72, additional engraved title, two engraved plates, contemporary lightly mottled calf, gilt spine; several annotations in pencil, no front paste-down end-paper or preliminary leaves before engraved title, which has some off-setting from leather, rear free end-paper creased and detached, both hinges a little tender, upper front and rear joint cracked, with slight loss of leather at top of spine and front joint. Fleeman 59.4R/26. ESTC N27923, locating copies at Dt, O; MH-H; Fleeman adds C; CaOTP, ViU.

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N° du livre: 7817

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction illustration literature

JOHNSON (Samuel):

The Prince of Abissinia. A Tale. The Fourth Edition.

London: Printed for W. Strahan, W. Johnston, and J. Dodsley, 1766 2 volumes. Small 8vo, pp. viii, 157 [158 blank]; viii, 164 [165], contemporary calf; lacks labels, most of gilt gone from spine, tops and bases of spines chipped, joints slightly cracked. Fleeman 59.4R/5.

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N° du livre: 5569

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction literary criticism literature

JOHNSON (Samuel):

The Prince of Abissinia. A Tale.

London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley...and W. Johnston..., 1759. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. Small 8vo, 150 x 94 mms., pp. [iii] iv - viii, 159 - 160 blank; [iii] iv - viii, 165 [166 blank], with leaf a2 in volume 2 reading "CONTENTS/ OF THE/ SECOND VOLUME," and on page 161 of volume 2 in the second line, the reading "indisceperpible," and the verso of D5 (age 106) in volume 2 signed D4, page 45 in volume 2 not numbered and the running title with the last "A" in "ABYSSINNA" in italics and spaced from rest of word, contemporary calf, red leather laebls; front free end-paper in each volume detached from inner margin, joints cracked (but firm), extremities worn, but a fair to good copy,with the presentation inscription on the front paste-down end-paper, "The gift of Mrs. Peareth/ to/ Dorothy Robertson," and the autograph "Miss Burrell" on the top margin of the title-page in each volume. Edmund Burke reviewed the novel in The Annual Register, beginning with the assertion that, "in this novel the moral is the principle, and the story is a mere vehicle to convey the instruction. Accordingly the tale is not near so full of incidents, or so diverting in itself, if the ingenious author, if he had not had higher views, might easily have made it; neither is the distinction of character sufficiently attended to: but with these defects, perhaps no book ever inculcated a purer and sounder morality; no book ever made a more just estimate of human life, its pursuits, and its enjoyments." Like many people, Burke was aware of the identity of the author and observed at the end of the review, "there is no doubt he is the same who has done so much for the improvement of our taste and our morals, and employed a great part of his life in an astonishing work for the fixing of the language of this nation; whilst this nation, which admires his works, and profits by them, has done nothing for the author." The giver in the inscription, "Mrs. Peareth", is no doubt the immensely wealthy female philanthropist Susanna (or Susan) Peareth (1752-1821), daughter and co-heiress of Collingwood Foster, Esq., of Alnwick. Collingwood Foster was an attorney at law, and an agent of the Duke of Northumberland, whose seat was Alnwick Castle. Susanna married William Peareth (1734-1810) of Usworth House, County Durham. By the 1820s, Mrs Peareth's wealth was valued at £14,000, according to an entry in the Special Collections catalogue of Durham University Library (). The inscription "Miss Burrell" in the present copy of Johnson's Rasselas may well be connected to the family of William Peareth's kinswoman Barbara Peareth (c.1759-1828), who married John Burrell of Bassington, a village near Alnwick, in 1775. Moreover, a certain William Burrell was one of the executors of Susan Peareth's last will and testament, and his name is frequently mentioned in the will, which is many pages in length (PROB 11/1657/74, National Archives, Kew). For more on these persons and families, see Burke's Landed Gentry, 6th edition (1882), Vol. 2, p. 1248; Joseph Michael Fewster, "The Politics and Administration of the Borough of Morpeth in the later Eighteenth Century", University of Newcastle Ph.D. thesis, 1960, pp. 191, 240 (); and the "Pedigree of Peareth, of Usworth" in Robert Surtees's chapter "Parish of Washington" in The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham: Volume 2, Chester Ward (London, 1820), pp. 40-49, accessible via British History Online (). Susanna Peareth is known even today in County Durham as the founder of a school for local children, which she endowed in 1814, four years after her husband's death and seven years before hers. A commemorative Blue Plaque was erected on the building of the school (still standing, though now a pub) in 2019 (). An old photograph of the school building, and a painted portrait of the foundress, can be seen online (, ). The aforementioned John Burrell is presumably the man of that name who appears in the list of subscribers to John Carr's book The Grove or Rural Harmony (1760), to which a certain "Mr Samuel Johnson" subscribed as well. (Johnson's first honorary doctorate would not be bestowed upon him until five years later; hence he was still, at this time, "Mr Johnson" rather than "Dr Johnson".) The ESTC finds no presentation inscriptions and no book ownership inscriptions relating to the philanthropist Susanna Peareth. In fact, the name Peareth is nowhere to be found in the ESTC database. Fleeman 59.4R/1. Rothschild 1242. The printer was William Strahan, who printed 1500 copies.

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N° du livre: 9305

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction morality literature

JOHNSON (Samuel):

The Prince of Abissinia. A Tale.

London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley...and W. Johnston..., 1759. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. Small 8vo, 156 x 94 mms., pp. [iii] iv - viii, 159 - 160 blank; [iii] iv - viii, 165 [166 blank], with leaf a2 in volume 2 reading "CONTENTS," and on page 161 of volume 2 in the second line, the reading "indiscerptible" and the verso of D5 (page 106) in volume 2 signed D4, contemporary calf, red leather labels; joints cracked and fragile, and binding a bit worn; no front free end-papers or initial blanks in either volume, slight water-staining of last three leaves in volume 2, occasional staining or foxing of text, but a good copy, with the presentation inscription on the blank recto of the leaf before the title-page, "This Book is the/ Gift of Lady Beaumont," and with the autograph "Jane Palmer" on the top margin of each title-page. Edmund Burke reviewed the novel in The Annual Register, beginning with the assertion that, "in this novel the moral is the principle, and the story is a mere vehicle to convey the instruction. Accordingly the tale is not near so full of incidents, or so diverting in itself, if the ingenious author, if he had not had higher views, might easily have made it; neither is the distinction of character sufficiently attended to: but with these defects, perhaps no book ever inculcated a purer and sounder morality; no book ever made a more just estimate of human life, its pursuits, and its enjoyments." Like many people, Burke was aware of the identity of the author and observed at the end of the review, "there is no doubt he is the same who has done so much for the improvement of our taste and our morals, and employed a great part of his life in an astonishing work for the fixing of the language of this nation; whilst this nation, which admires his works, and profits by them, has done nothing for the author." Fleeman 59.4R/1. Rothschild 1242. The printer was William Strahan, who printed 1500 copies.

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N° du livre: 9574

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction morality literature

JOHNSON (Samuel):

Rasselas, Prince d'Abyssinie, Conte. Traduite de l'Anglais par Alexandre Notré.

Londres: Chez G. et W. B. Whittaker..., 1823. FIRST EDITION of this translation. 12mo, 182 x 110 mms., pp. [ii], iv, 230, including half-title, contemporary straight grain olive morocco, gilt spine, all edges gilt; text a bit foxed, top of spine chipped, but a very good copy with the ownership "Miss Hawkins" in a fine calligraphic script at the top of the half-title. It would be pleasant to think that this once belonged to Laetitia-Matilda Hawkins (1759 - 1835), the author and daughter of Sir John Hawkins (d. 1789), whom the author of Rasselas declared to be "unclubbable." Also with the pencil ownership autograph of Roger Senhouse on the front paste-down end-paper. Fleeman 59.4R/TF/24. Copies located in BL, Bodleian, Aberdeen, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow; Yale, Chicago, Harvard, Princeton, Toronto Public.

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N° du livre: 6332

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction translation literature

JOHNSON (Samuel):

Rasselas. A Tale.

Edinburgh: Printed by Walker and Greig, For John Greig..., 1812. 12mo, 167 x 93 mms., pp. xii, 187 [188 blank, 189 adverts, 190 blank], including half-title, engraved frontispiece (by Tegg; no artist given), contemporary calf, gilt spine (rubbed); lacks label, binding a little dried, top and base of spine slightly chipped, joints cracked (but firm). Inscribed on the recto of the front free end-paper, "From the Rev. George Masters. Frances Cholmoley." Fleeman 59.4R/69. Copies located in BL, NLS, Cambridge; Huntington, Harvard, Princeton; Kyoto.

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N° du livre: 8647

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction romance literature

[KENNEDY (Grace)]:

Dunallan; or Know What You Judge; A Story. Second Edition.

Edinburgh: Printed by W. Oliphant...and Hamilton, Adams & Co...., London, 1825. 3 volumes. 12mo, 182 x 105 mms., pp. [iv], 270 [271 adverts, 272 blank]; [iv], 272; [iv], 220, including half-title in volumes 1 and 2, contemporary half calf, marbled boards, gilt spines, red leather labels; a very good set with the armorial bookplate of Anthony Lefroy on the front pastedown end-paper of each volume The novelist Grace Kennedy (1782–1825) published eight novels in a short period before her death, including the present novel. According to the December 1824 edition of The New Evangelical Magazine and Theological Review the work was "in press" to be published as Dunallan or the Methodist Husband in (1824); the sub-title seems to have been changed before the actual publication. The Eclectic Review for 1825 said of it that the author has a "a simple style, a gentle eloquence, and her moral lessons are as superior to Miss Edgeworth's as she is inferior to that popular writer in genius.... The style of Dunallan is simple, chaste, and pleasing." Wolff 3778 (first edition). Raven, James, and 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 (OUP, 2000). 1825: 48.

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N° du livre: 9522

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction women literature

KNIGHT (E[llis]. Cornelia):

Marcus Flaminius An Historical Novel: in A Series of Letters supposed to be Written in the Life-time of Germanicus.

London: Printed for C. Dilly..., 1795. 2 volumes. Large 8vo, 205 x 128 mms., pp. xii, 402; [ii], 341 [342 blank], contemporary half roan, marbled boards, spine richly gilt, black leather labels; some slight wear to spine, corners worn, but a good copy, with the armorial bookplate of William Botfield on the front paste-down end-papers. Ellis Cornelia Knight (1757–1837) was unusual among girls in that she was exceptionally well-educated in her youth, studying from the age of five with four Swiss sisters at a boarding school, and on the other three days, "she was instructed in French, Latin, the elements of Greek, mathematics, geography, and history by a visiting master, M. Petitpierre, who had formerly been pastor at Neufchâtel; she was taught to dance by Mr Novere, a highly fashionable dancing-master." Her first book, Dinarbas: a Tale, published in 1790 was intended as a "continuation" of Samuel Johnson's Rasselas. The present work was first published in 1792, and this is the second edition. The Monthly Review noticed the work in the same year, remarking that mixing fiction and fact could mislead readers ignorant of the historical context. Marcus Flamenius, however, " partakes more of the fictitious than the historical character. If it be read as a composition of fancy and sentiments, it will afford much amusement; for the fair writer has discovered great ingenuity with interweaving, in the relation of historical facts.., many imaginary incidents, and in exhibiting several portraits, at full length, of characters briefly sketched in real history...." Raven, James, Antonia Forster, Peter Garside, Rainer Schöwerling, The English Novel, 1770-1829: A Bibliographical Survey of Prose Fiction Published in the British Isles (OUP 2000), 1792: 42.

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N° du livre: 10040

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction women literature