Dr. Thorne [Quite Scarce] by Trollope, Anthony - 1858

London: Chapman & Hall, 1858. Mixed First and Second edition. Hardcover. Very Good. A Very Good copy of this Trollope classic, rebound in contemporary 3/4 leather with a lovely compartmented spine lettered and decorated in gilt, with marbled boards and marbled endpapers, and with the edges of the closed page block marbled to match the boards, without the advertisements. Volume I and Volume II are the scarce second edition, and Volume III is the prized first edition. in the Publisher's original tan boards Sadleir estimates that only 750 copies of the first edition, and only 250 copies of the second edition, were printed. The novel centers on young Frank Gresham, heir to the remnants of a once-fine English Estate and once-fine fortune that his father had wasted under the influence of Frank's aristocratic mother, and on the young Mary Thorne whose origins and history are known only to her uncle, the good Doctor Thorne. Of this novel, Hugh Walpole stated "There are fire-and-thunder Trollopians who will die for DOCTOR THORNE. By not a few it is considered the best Trollope of them all." Immensely popular, the first edition sold out in a single fortnight, leading to the the production of the second edition (of only 250 copies) even as the first cheap edition in a single volume was being prepared. The front pastedown of each Volume bears the elegant bookplate and small shelf location sticker of Lord Monteagle of Brandon with the family motto "Fides non Timet" [Faith does not Fear] surrounding the family crest. We speculate, quite reasonably we think, that mixed issues of Dr. Thorne were on the market at the same time and that this set is such a set. Sadleir ranks the first edition of Dr. Thorne as the SECOND SCARCEST OF ANTHONY TROLLOPE'S NOVELS, ranking in scarcity behind only The Macdermots of Ballycloran (itself one of the scarcest novels in all of Victorian Era literature and, in all practicality, unobtainable), and the second edition, with only one-third as many copies printed, logically should be scarcer still. This copy is in Very Good condition with the leaves trimmed for the rebinding, but with nice margins remaining, shelf wear to the base of each board with the rubbing through to the board where originally covered in cloth, some scuffing to the leather and to the board paper, and a light touch of quite scattered foxing to the leaves). A Very Good set of a remarkably scarce Trollope triple decker, and especially scarce with any of the volumes being in the first edition. QUITE SCARCE.