The Book of the Boudoir

by Lady Morgan

[30 Day Return Guarantee] Price: $350.00

Book Description

Galignani, Paris, 1829. First Paris edition (printed in English). Two volume set, small octavos, three-quarter leather binding with marbled boards and endpapers. Lady Morgan, born Sydney Owenson, is one of the most colorful of the female contributors to Irish literature. Born in 1783 to an Irish actor, she travelled with him throughout Ireland and developed strong nationalistic sympathies. To help extricate her father from financial difficulties, she began to write conventional romantic novels; her third novel, The Wild Irish Girl, displayed her Irish sentiments and made her widely known. She also wrote verses for Irish melodies in advance of Thomas Moore's collections. A later novel displayed her feminist leanings, and a book on the social situation in France addressed the plight of the lower classes; both books won her many friends and enemies. She eventually left Ireland to protest O'Connell's Irish rule and settled in Paris, where she died in 1859. The Book of the Boudoir was published in England in 1829; the first American and Paris editions also appeared that year. The book contains much social and political comment, and is written in a more intimate style than her other publications. (The book's title, she coyly notes, refers only to the fact that the bedroom was where she kept the journal that eventually became the book.) This copy has an interesting provenance: a formal bookplate in Volume 1 reads "Sacred to the memory of Eliza Mary, Countess de Fleury, who died at Paris 20th September and was buried in this churchyard 2nd October 1862. She was the eldest daughter of Clement Kirwan, of an ancient family in Ireland." Two paragraphs follow giving details about the family, which was active in the time of Charles II. The bookplate ends: "This tablet is erected by her bereaved husband and Clifford Viscount de Fleury her only son in remembrance of one who was admired and beloved of all who knew her." The signature of the Count de Fleury appears on the half-title of both volumes. VG+, a very attractive set with just a little rubbing on the spines; leather, boards, and gilt lettering on spine are all bright; pages are clean and only lightly foxed; corners and edges generally free of wear. The front free endpaper has a small abraded area facing the bookplate, and a trace of the endpaper pattern is visible on the corresponding area on the bookplate --a minor flaw, probably a result of the glue used to attach the bookplate, and one which does not affect readability of the print. Scarce thus, and especially interesting because of the association between these two admirable Irishwomen, who eventually left their country to live in Paris, and who died there within 3 years of each other.

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