A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature by Schlegel, August Wilhelm von; Black, John (translator); [Currer, Frances Mary Richardson] - 1815

London: Baldwin, Craddock, and Joy, 1815. First edition in English of August Wilhelm von Schlegel's lectures on drama, from the ancient Greeks to Shakespeare and Goethe, first delivered in Vienna in 1808. A foundational text of German Romanticism, the lectures were influential across Europe; Schlegel's insistence on Shakespeare as a conscious artist, rather than "a blind and wildly luxuriant genius," did much to counter centuries of Continental condescension: "Shakespeare makes each of his principal characters the glass in which the others are reflected, and in which we are enabled to discover what could not be immediately revealed to us." This copy of Schlegel's lectures was owned by Yorkshire coal heiress Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785-1861), who built a celebrated library of some 20,000 volumes. Contemporaries praised Currer's scholarship and taste, as well as the rigorous organization and "choice condition" of her books. The bibliographer Thomas Frognall Dibdin called her a "book-genius," and remarked of her library: "The 'Collections' are nearly perfect." In 1820, and again in 1833, Currer issued a catalogue of her holdings, widely viewed as "the model catalogue of a private library" (DNB), and sent copies to book collectors across England and Europe, including members of the newly formed Roxburghe Club, quietly asserting her place among them. Also known for her commitment to charitable causes, Currer is obliquely noted as a "wealthy lady, in the West Riding of Yorkshire" who paid off the debts of a new widower, Patrick Brontë; scholars speculate that Charlotte Brontë's unusual pen name, Currer Bell, is a tribute to Frances Currer. A near-fine copy of an important work of Romantic literary criticism, with excellent provenance. Two octavo volumes, measuring 8.25 x 5 inches: xv, [1], 391, [1]; iv, 390. Contemporary speckled calf, boards double-ruled in gilt, raised bands, spine compartments decorated in gilt, morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, all edges speckled red. Armorial bookplates of Frances Mary Richardson Currer, small modern bookplates of Douglas Grant. Occasional scuff to calf, stray spot of foxing to text, joints repaired.