A Simple story. by INCHBALD (Mrs. [Elizabeth]) - 1791

In Four volumes. By Mrs. Inchbald. London: Printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, Pater-noster [Paternoster in volume two] Row, 1791.
4 Vols., f’cap 16mo in half sheets; half-title in each volume; integral blank at end of volume two; 8pp. integral advertisements at end of volume four, continuing the signatures; [ ]2, A4, C-I, K-P8, Q5; [A]2, B-I, K-R8; [A]2, B-I, K-O8, [ ]1; [A]2, B-I, K8, L7, M4; pp.[iv]+vii+[i (blank)]+233+[i (nine entry Errata to First Volume)]; [iv]+253+[i (fourteen entry Errata to Second Volume)]+[ii]; [iv]+209+[i (five entry Errata)]; [iv]+157+[i (six line Errata)]+[viii]; contemporary full tree-calf, spine ruled and tooled gilt, with red lettering-piece and dark green numbering piece bearing red oval onlay in centre carrying the volume number; binder’s blanks at front an back. Some joints cracked, but firm on the cords and end-papers; insignificant insect damage to spine and heads and tails of joint in one volume, not affecting end-papers or text; otherwise a fine copy internally. The second state of text in which gathering E in volume three is correctly imposed. (A very scarce first state exists in which it has been wrongly imposed). A blank may be lacking at the end of volume one, but has been so in every copy we have seen; the missing L8 in volume four is presumably the unsigned leaf at the end of volume three. Minor differences in style (such as the presence or absence of taper rules on the half title, or the corresponding use of commas rather than full stops to divide the letters of the Roman figure date on the title-page) suggest that the text was distributed between two printers, one setting volumes one and two, the other volumes three and four. NCBEL, 2: 843; CBEL, II, p.472; ESTC, T134770; Block, p.118; Raven & Forster, 1791:41: none of the above listing variants; this title not in Rothschild. “‘A Simple Story’ explores in much greater psychological depth issues and behavioural patterns that also preoccupied her in her plays... its overall effect is to disturb eighteenth-century complacency about the benevolence of paternal power in a way Inchbald’s dramas did not’ - ODNB. All books listed by Robert Temple are first editions unless otherwise stated.