The Cloister and the Hearth; or Maid, Wife, and Widow. A Matter-of-Fact Romance.

New York: Rudd & Carleton., 1861.. Exterior worn.

. Binding: contemporary brown cloth over board, title in gilt on flat spine, upper and lower board with blind decorative tooling., Notes: The Cloister and the Hearth is a historical novel, set in the 15th century, it relates the story revolving about the travels of a young scribe and illuminator, Gerard Eliassoen, through several European countries. The Cloister and the Hearth often describes the events, people and their practices in minute detail. Its main theme is the struggle between man's obligations to family, and to Church. Based on a few lines by the humanist Erasmus about the life of his parents, the novel began as a serial in Once a Week magazine in 1859 under the title "A Good Fight", but when Reade disagreed with the proprietors of the magazine over some of the subject matter (principally the unmarried pregnancy of the heroine), he curtailed the serialisation with a false happy ending.
Charles Reade (1814 – 1884) was an English novelist and dramatist, best known for The Cloister and the Hearth. Reade began his literary career as a dramatist. As an author, he always had an eye to stage effect in scene and situation as well as in dialogue.
, Size: 8vo, , Category: Book Literature