PORTER (Anna Maria), Miss:

Roche-Blanche; Or, The Hunters of the Pyrenees. A Romance.

London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown..., 1822. FIRST EDITION. 3 volumes. 12mo, 191 x 108 mms., pp. [iv - adverts], xi [xii: "The Reader is requested to substitute the name of RICHE-BLANCHE, for ROCHE BLANC, throughout the novel"], 374; [iv], 419 [420 blank]; [iv], 568, including half-titles in volumes 2 and 3, edges uncut, but opened, paper labels on spines; end-papers foxed, bindings a bit soiled, slight chips and wear to labels, but a good set. Anna Maria Porter (1778–1832) along with her sister and Jane Porter (bap. 1776, d. 1850), also a novelist decided an early age to devote their lives to literature and composition. According to the account of Anna's life in ODNB, " Jane said of Anna that 'the quickness of her perceptions gave her an almost intuitive knowledge of everything she wished to learn', while Mrs S. C. Hall described her as blonde, and by nature gay.'" The novel attracted a short and appreciative review in The Monthly Review: "The character of the Baron de Roche Blanche, in the commencement of this work, is so spirited, so natural, and if we may say it, so French, that we should willingly have seen this happy and comical sketch filled up:-- but, in the subsequent pages, our attention is called to nobler personages and graver scenes, and the interest excited is deep and pleasing."

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N° du livre: 9521

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction women literature

PSEUDO PHALARIS.

Phalaridos Akragantinon tyrannou epistolai. Agrigentinorum Tyranni. Epistolae. Ex MSS Recensuit, Version, Annotationibus & Vita insuper Authoris Donvavit Car. Boyle, ex. AEde Christi.

Oxonii, E Typographeo Clarendoniano, Impensis Stephani Fletcher..., 1728. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo, 198 x 112 mms., pp. [xxviii], 154 [155 - 158 index], fine engraved frontispiece, engraved vignette on title-page, contemporary calf, spine gilt to a fleur-de-lys motif, morocco label; slight wear to front joint, small nicks to top and base of spine, but generally a very good copy. Given that ESTC records at least 40 locations for this epistolary novel in Greek with Latin translation beneath in notes, one would expect to find a large corpus of scholarly work. The editor/author, the Jacobite conspirator, Charles Boyle, Fourth Earl of Orrery (1674 - 1731) made a name for himself in the dispute between the ancients and moderns, so memorably satarized in Swift's Battle of the Books. The attribution to Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragas (now Agrigento) in Sicily, from approximately 570 to 554 BC, is, of course, false. The Dean of Christ Church asked Boyle to translate the Epistles of Phalaris (spurious) led him into a controversy with the scholar Richard Bentley at the end of the 17th century.

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N° du livre: 9371

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction translation literature

RADCLIFFE (Ann):

The Mysteries of Udolpho, A Romance; interspersed with some pieces of poetry. The Second Edition.

London: Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson..., 1794. 4 volumes. Large 12mo, 178 x 101 mms., pp. [iv], 428; [iv], 478; [iv], 463 [464 blank]; [iv], 427 [428 blank], including half-title in each volume, contemporary boards (very worn), rebacked in quarter antique-style calf, gilt spines; ex-library, with various library markings, library stamp in blind on title-page, stamps in blind on several leaves, but a serviceable set. When Mrs. Radcliffe's novel was first published in 1794, the anonymous reviewer in The Critical Review felt that it did not measure up to her earlier novel, Romance of the Forest: "Curiosity is raised oftener than it is gratified; or, rather, it is raised so high that no adequate gratification can be given it; the interest is completely dissolved when once the adventure is finished, and the reader, when he has got to the end of the work, looks about in vain for the spell which had bound him so strongly to it." Mr. Tilney in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey asserts "The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. I have read all Mrs. Radcliffe's works, and most of them with great pleasure. The Mysteries of Udolpho, when I had once begun it, I could not lay down again; I remember finishing it in two days — my hair standing on end the whole time." In 1810, Coleridge wrote to Wordsworth, "I amused myself a day or two ago on reading a Romance in Mrs. Radcliff's style with making out a scheme, which was to serve for all romances a priori--only varying the proportions . . . A Baron or Baroness ignorant of their birth, and in some dependent situation--Castle--on a Rock--a Sepulchre--at some distance from the Rock--Deserted Rooms--Underground Passages--Pictures--A ghost, so believed--or--a written record--blood on it! A wonderful Cut throat &c. &c. &c."

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N° du livre: 9499

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction women literature

RADCLIFFE (Ann):

The Mysteries of Udolpho, A Romance; interspersed with some pieces of poetry. The Second Edition.

London: Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson..., 1794. 4 volumes. Large 12mo, 176 x 103 mms., pp. [iv], 428; [iv], 478; [iv], 463 [464 blank]; [iv], 427 [428 blank], lacking half-titles in each volume, contemporary half calf, gilt spines, black morocco labels, marbled boards (slightly worn). A very good set. When Mrs. Radcliffe's novel was first published in 1794, the anonymous reviewer in The Critical Review felt that it did not measure up to her earlier novel, Romance of the Forest: "Curiosity is raised oftener than it is gratified; or, rather, it is raised so high that no adequate gratification can be given it; the interest is completely dissolved when once the adventure is finished, and the reader, when he has got to the end of the work, looks about in vain for the spell which had bound him so strongly to it." Mr. Tilney in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey asserts "The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. I have read all Mrs. Radcliffe's works, and most of them with great pleasure. The Mysteries of Udolpho, when I had once begun it, I could not lay down again; I remember finishing it in two days — my hair standing on end the whole time." In 1810, Coleridge wrote to Wordsworth, "I amused myself a day or two ago on reading a Romance in Mrs. Radcliff's style with making out a scheme, which was to serve for all romances a priori--only varying the proportions . . . A Baron or Baroness ignorant of their birth, and in some dependent situation--Castle--on a Rock--a Sepulchre--at some distance from the Rock--Deserted Rooms--Underground Passages--Pictures--A ghost, so believed--or--a written record--blood on it! A wonderful Cut throat &c. &c. &c."

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N° du livre: 9767

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction women literature

ROBLES (Isidoro de):

Varios Prodigios de Amor. En onze novelas exemplares, nuevas, nunca vistas, ni impressas. Las cinco escritas sin una de las letras vocales ; y las otras de gusto, y apacible entretenimiento. Tercera impression. Añadidos, y emmendados tres casos prodigiosos. Compuestas por diferentes autores, los mejores ingenios de España. Recogidas Por Isidro de Robles, natural de esta Coronada Villa de Madrid.

Madrid En la Imprenta da Agustin Fernandez..., 1709. Small quarto, 200 x 140 mms., pp. [xii], 288, annotations dated 1800 on rear paste-down end-paper, contemporary vellum, rather creased and dried, and slightly soiled, but an inoffensive binding. This is a remarkably early example of lipogrammatic literature. A lipogram is "a kind of constrained writing or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is avoided. Extended Ancient Greek texts avoiding the letter sigma are the earliest examples of lipograms" (Wikipedia). As early as the 1820s, Robles's Varios Prodigios de Amor was regarded as not only a remarkable technical achievement, but also a specimen of writing which exemplified the lexical wealth of Castilian Spanish itself. As the bibliographer Vincent Salva said of Robles's book: "No work affords more ample proof of the inexhaustible richness of the castilian language than the present. To write five novels, in prose and verse, under the strict condition of excluding from each of them one of the five vowels of the alphabet, and to accomplish this task in such a manner that the reader does not at first sight perceive the scheme or the fetters with which the author had surrounded his pen, could only be done in a language extraordinarily rich in words and phrases" (A Catalogue of Spanish and Portuguese Books, with Occasional Literary and Bibliographical Remarks by Vincent Salva [London, 1826], pp. 181-2). Six years later, the critic Thomas Roscoe agreed, and elaborated, stating that Robles published Varios Prodigios de Amor -- meaning "Love's Many Wonders" -- but "attributed the work, from some whim, to different authors, whom he characterises as the best minor writers. It is remarkable, moreover, for containing five novels, each of which displays the peculiar humour of the author and his age, by dispensing with the use of one of the five vowels in each of the five tales. It at the same time served to show the richness and flexibility of the Castilian tongue in as much as the reader is not aware of the slightest alteration or embarrassment in the style, not even discovering the absence of so necessary an ingredient in good composition" (Thomas Roscoe, The Spanish Novelists: A Series of Tales, from the Earliest Period to the Close of the Seventeenth Century, Translated from the Originals, with Critical and Biographical Notices [London, 1832], Vol. 3, pp. 161-2). OCLC locates copies in Harvard, Ohio State, and Universityh of Wisconsin Milwaukee; one in Bibliotheque National de France

John Price Antiquarian BooksVendeur professionnel

N° du livre: 9775

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction continental printing literature

ROCHE (Regina Maria):

The Children of the Abbey, A Tale.

Exeter: J&. B. Williams, 1829. 3 volumes. 16mo, pp. [ii], 262; [ii], 238; [ii], 237 [238 blank], including half-title in each volume, woodcut frontispiece in each volume, contemporary sheepskin, gilt spines; front cover volume 1 detached, tear in title-page. joints on other volumes a little rubbed and worn. First published in 1796 and frequently reprinted and translated into French and German, Mrs. Roche's representation of the romantic Adela provoked admiration and no doubt imitation.

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N° du livre: 2930

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction romance literature women

[ROWLANDSON (Thomas). FARQUHAR (Ferdinand):

The Relicks of a Saint. A right merry Tale.

London: Printed for Thomas Tegg... [inter alia], 1816. FIRST EDITION. 12mo, 177 x 103 mms., pp. [iv], 135 [136 blank], including half-title, fine colour frontispiece, original boards, uncut, paper label on spine, which is slightly defective, front joint cracked, but a good copy It seems unlikely that an author named "Ferdinand Farquhar" ever existed, as I have not traced any other works by him. No surprises there.

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N° du livre: 9894

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction illustration literature

[RUTLEDGE (Jean-Jacques)]:

The Englishman's Fortnight in Paris; or, The Art of Ruining Himself There in a Few Days. By an Observer. Translated from the French.

London: Printed for T. Durham, at Charing-Cross, and G. Kearsleyk, at No. 46, in Fleet-Street, 1777. 8vo, 207 x 118 mms., pp., [ii], x, 222 [223 adverts, 224 blank], with the subscription leaf of Gilbert's Circulating Library Spalding on the front paste-down end-paper; no leaves before title-page, which is creased and soiled, contemporary half calf, marbled boards (very rubbed), old rebacking and recornering, but front joint cracked and tender, and binding dried; text clean. This translation of Jean Jacques Rutledge's La Quinzaine Angloise à Paris was noticed almost immediately by The Monthly Review: "We are assured that this narrative is founded in the real imprudences and misfortunes of a young English Milord, who lately made the fashionable trip to the great emporium of modern politeness, -- with twelve thousand guineas in his pocket, -- and all squandered in a fortnight, amidst a crowd of whores, pimps, doctors, abbe's, marquisses, and other sharpers of the ton.... The preface informs us that the original, in French, was suppressed at Paris. If this be true, which we do not question, it might not. perhaps, be wholly a groundless supposition, if we were to ascribe this act of police, to some apprehension in our prudent neighbours, that the perusal of this exemplary detail, might tend to frighten our young people of fashion from making the tour, and keep them and their money at home; for which good end, this history of a fortnight's follies is extremely well adapted." To judge from the condition of the book, this was one of the Spalding Circulating Library's most popular item. Were the young people of fashion frightened enough by reading this book to avoid making the Grand Tour of the continent? The work appeared in three issues or states in 1777. This is ESTC N31079, with a note below the date on the title-page, "This Work may be had of the above Booksellers in French, Printed from the Paris Edition, which was suppressed in that Country."

John Price Antiquarian BooksVendeur professionnel

N° du livre: 9738

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction travel literatkure

SMOLLETT (Tobias):

The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves. Cooke's Edition. Two Volumes in One. Embellished with Superb Engravings.

London: Printed for C. Cooke..., no date, [1793]. 2 volumes in 1. 12mo (in 6s), 140 x 80 mms., pp. 260 (pagination continuous through both volumes), engraved frontispiece (pulling loose at lower inner margin) to volume 1, 2 other engraved plates, dated 1793, by Hawkins after Corbould, contemporary calf, gilt spine, black leather label; text spotted and stained, front joint cracked and tender. A so-so copy. As I am accountable for a couple of commentaries on some of Smollett's novels, I am irresistibly reminded of the one-sentence notice of the 1762 first edition in book form in The Monthly Review: "Better than the common Novels, but unworthy the pen of Dr. Smollet [sic]." It received a longer review in The Critical Review, where the reviewer referred to it as an "ingenious little piece," comparing it to Cervantes' work. The characters of Sir Launcelot and Crabshaw were delightful, "Nor are [they] the only portraits on which this author hath lavished the powers of genius..., and some others, are truly characteristical, and demonstrative of the genuine humour, satirical talents, and benevolent heart of the writer." That Smollett was one of the editors of The Critical Review might have had something to do with this analysis.

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N° du livre: 8867

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction quixotic literature

STEELE (Sir Richard):

The Conscious Lovers. Gli Amanti Interni Commedia Inglese del Cavaliere Ricardo Steele.

Londra No Publisher [?John Picard] 1724. FIRST ITALIAN EDITION. 12mo, 147 x 88 mms., pp. [x], 166, engraved frontispiece, recently rebound in full maroon morocco, raised bands, title in gilt on spine, all edges gilt. A fine copy. The Conscious Lovers was first performed on 7 November 1722, and, according to Calhoun Winton in ODNB, "It was his greatest success in the theatre, though not his best play, and its place in theatrical history—with its pathetic, or tragicomic, main plot and comic subplot—is still the subject of critical debate." This translation is by Paolo Rolli (1687 - 1785), who worked in London from 1715 until 1744. By 1791, The Conscious Lovers had reached a 15th edition, but Rolli's translation does not seem to have been reprinted. Sinopoli (Franco): Dalla repubblica letteraria alla letteratura europea: Paolo Rolli tra Italia e Inghilterra (2013). Rodney M. Baine: "The Publication of Steele's 'Conscious Lovers'" in Studies in Bibliography (Vol. 2, 1949/1950).

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N° du livre: 8721

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction translation literature

STERNE (Laurence):

A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. By Mr. Yorick. A New Edition.

London: Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt..., 1771. 2 volumes. Small 8vo, pp. [ii], 203 [204 blank]; [ii], 208, contemporary calf; lacks labels, spine worn, volume 2 spine broken at pp. 94 - 95, with the volumes thus in two pieces, alas. Contemporary autograph (dated 1772 on first page of text of each volume) of Samuel Brown in several places in each volume.

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N° du livre: 6107

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction travel literature

STERNE (Laurence):

A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, By Mr. Yorick; and the History of a Good Warm Watch-Coat, &c. A Political Romance,

Paris: Sold by Theophilus Barrois, Bookseller Quai des Augustins, no. 18, 1783. 12mo, pp. [iii] - xx, 205 [206 blank], including half-title, contemporary sheepskin; worn, rubbed and dried. Pages [vii] - xx contain "Some Account of the Life and Writings of Mr. Sterne." A second edition was published in the same year, "Second edition., Revised by M. D***.." Barrois was one of the publishes of the first French edition in English, which he and J. N. Pissot published in 1780, printed by J. G. A Stoupe. Copac gives a pagination of xx, 205; this copy may lack a blank leaf before the half-title, as the leaf following the title-page, with the account of Sterne's life is signed aiv. However, the last leaf in the text is a singleton, signed K, and that probably accounts for the error in pagination, with leaf K having been printed with the preliminary material.

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N° du livre: 9233

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction travel literature

SULLIVAN (Arabella Jane):

Recollections of a Chaperon. Edited by Lady Dacre. New Edition.

London: Richard Bentley..., 1833. 3 volumes. Large 12mo, 178 x 110 mms., pp. [ii], 302; [ii] [3] 4 - 332; [ii] [3] - 320, with the title-pages for volumes 1 and 2 transposed, contemporary half calf dark green calf, spine with raised bands and double maroon labels, lightly rubbed but a very good clean set. With the autograph "H Spottiswoode" on the top margin of the title-page. The Edinburgh Review noticed the work in the same year. After a few pages of recollections on the state and status of novels, the reviewer asserts, "We are therefore inclined to think that novels, descriptive of the manners of the day, if imbued with a sufficiency of talent to enable them to live, will be more acceptable to our successors than equally well-written novels of the historical class. We will now turn to one of the most pleasing specimens of the former of these classes, the 'Recollections of a Chaperon'; a collection of tales which rumour assigns to Mrs. Sullivan, the daughter of the accomplished editress, Lady Dacre." After several more pages of comment and endorsement, the reviewer concludes that the novellsas "are the productions of one who seems well-bred enough to have ventured to write naturally - to have eschewed the lispings and mincings of pseudo fashion - to have abstained from the intermixture of French in her dialogues, permitting even her duchessses to speak plain English - and to be content to have allowed her pretenions to a competent knowledge of London life to rest unsupported by any display of an intimate acquaintance with the tradesman's 'Directory.'" This "New Edition" was also published in 1833, and the misbinding of the title-pages of volumes 1 and 2 suggest that the sheets of that edition were used, perhaps to suggest that the first printing was such a success that a new edition was called for.

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N° du livre: 9954

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction women literature

TABRAHAM (Richard):

Instructive Sketches of Character. Fourth Edition, Enlarged. Six Thousand Two Hundred. Sent post paid, if ordered of the Rev. R. Tabraham, Spalding, or through any Wesleyan Minister.

[?London]: Published for the benefit of an afflicted Daughter. Price Three Shillings. 1865 Small 8vo, 168 x 98 mms., pp. [5] 6 - 346, including half-title, original embossed cloth (detached from casing, showing waste paper used in binding), with ownership inscription of Agnes Wade, later Agnes Cowen, of 57 Ark Road, Saltley, on top right of the recto of the front free endpaper. The Wesleyan minister and social activist Richard Tabraham (1792-1878) was converted to Methodism when he was 20 and began to preach at the age of 23. One of the subscribers was Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784 - 1865); Palmerston appears as the first name -- given pride of place -- at the head of the lists (p. [309]). A recent study of Palmerston's maneuverings or political action regarding religion during his premiership suggests he was generally prone to bolstering the Church of England, though was criticized as being susceptible to undue sway from Evangelicals. No copy in COPAC or WorldCat, but other editions are located in the BL and the V&A.

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N° du livre: 9057

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction religion literature

THACKERAY (William Makepeace):

The History of Pendennis. His Fortunes and Misfortunes, his Friends and his Greatest Enemy.

London: Bradbury and Evans..., 1849, 1850. FIRST EDITION in book form. 2 volumes. 8vo, pp. viii, 384; xii, 372, engraved frontispieces, additional engraved title-pages, numerous steel-engraved vignettes and full-page plates, contemporary half calf, rebacked with old spines gilt in compartments laid down, morocco labels, marbled boards (rubbed); spines darkened and with some loss of gilt, edges dusty.

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N° du livre: 3118

Catalogue: Fiction

Mots-clés: fiction illustration literature