Extracts Principally from English Classics: showing that the legal suppression of M. Zola's novels would logically involve the bowdlerizing of some of the greatest works in English literature

by Vizetelly, Henry

First printing

Price: $1,850.00
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Book description: London: none, 1888. First printing. Very Good +. A Very Good+ copy of the GENUINE ORIGINAL FIRST EDITION and not the copy sometimes mistaken for it which John Carter dubbed the "pirated reprint". As best we can determine, very few copies of the Genuine Original First Edition exist. (William Colburn-author of the article from which much of the bibliographical information in this description is taken- located only 24 copies, most of them in institutions, although he speculated that there likely are more than that number in existence). This copy has been rebound in 3/4 leather with marbled boards. It contains the letter from Vizetelly to Sir A.K. Stephenson, solicitor to the Treasury, preceding the main text in which Vizetelly protests the intervention of the Government in the case against him. Vizetelly was the publisher most responsible for introducing Zola to England's reading public. From 1884 to 1889, Vizetelly published 17 of Zola's works translated into English, all at affordable prices. Though sanitized a bit for the English reader, the National Vigilance Association objected to them and Vizetelly was charged with publishing obscene libels. After his conviction in 1988 for publishing "The Soil" ("La Terre") (labeled by the solicitor-general as a work of "bestial obscenity"), wherein he was enjoined from publishing Zola translations, Vizetelly continued nevertheless to do so, was convicted again, and was sentenced to three months imprisonment. The book at hand was published by Vizetelly in response, citing and quoting numerous English authors from Shakespeare to Swinburne in which those authors made references to fornication, whores, and related matters. This copy meets all points required of the GENUINE ORIGINAL FIRST EDITION. A scarce book.

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