Search Results: fiction from John Price Antiquarian Books

A Minutie [?Paris] [Prault] 1744. FIRST EDITION. 4to, 286 x 210 mms., pp. [viii], 83 [84 blank], engraved frontispiece, and nine other full-page engraved plates after François Boucher by Pierre-Quentin Chedel, two vignettes designed and engraved by Charles-Nicholas Cochin and a cul-de-lampe, contemporary calf, spine richly gilt, red leather label; corners, top and base of spine worn, but a good copy. The plates first appeared in Comte de Tessin's Faunillane, ou l'Infante Jaune, published in 1741. Tesssin, having had only a few copies printed of this book, later gave the plates to the publisher Laurent Prault, who then had the fun of finding a text that might serve be proper for the plates. As Christies noted in the auction of another copy in June, 2013, "He proposed the idea to three writers, Caylus, Voisenon and Duclos, and it was Duclos' text which was finally chosen. This is thus one of the earliest cases of a non-explanatory text being commissioned to accompany a set… Read More

London: Printed by J. Williams...and J. Burd..., 1760. FIRST EDITION. 12mo, 172 x 97 mms., pp. [iii] - xii, 166, 19th century half calf, marbled boards, gilt spine, black leather label; lacks half-title, title-page defective, but mounted with repair to upper right-hand corners, losing the "s" of Adventures, last leaf leaf defective, also with loss of a few words at upper inner margin of text, and with gutter repaired, text fingered, joints and extremities rubbed, a so-so copy, with a diamond-shaped bookplate with runic initials on front past-down end-paper. Jonathan Lamb's article, "Modern Metamorphoses and Disgraceful Tales," published in Critical Inquiry is the first scholarly work that I know of to describe the "it-novel." or "novel of circulation," and Charles Gildon's The Golden Spy (1709) is usually cited as the first of the genre. Most booksellers, literary scholars, and librarians with be familiar with Chrysal, The Adventures of a Guinea,… Read More

London: Printed or John Gray..., 1742. 2 volumes. 12mo, pp. leaves numbered rather than pages, so [iv], xxxii [sic, but actually lxiii, lxxiv blank], 216 [217 blank, but 432, 433 text, 434 blank]; [iv], 207 [414, 415 text, 416 blank], parallel translations with French on verso facing English on recto, 6 engraved plates in volume 2, contemporary calf; lacks map in volume 1 and there are no plates in volume 1, joints cracked, spines worn, top and base of spine chipped. This is different translation from that by Ozell, first published in 1715, or that by Littlebury and Boyer 1699 - 1700. The translation is prefaced by Andrew Michael Ramsay's discourse on epic poetry, also in French and English, with this note, "This discourse has been revised, alter'd and improved in many places, according to corrected communicated by Mr. Ramsay, who is the author of it." The earliest English printing of Ramsay's discourse on epic poetry, first published in French in 1717, that I have found… Read More

London: Printed for C. Cooke..., no date, [1793]. 2 volumes in 1. 12mo (in 6s), 140 x 80 mms., pp. 260 (pagination continuous through both volumes), engraved frontispiece (pulling loose at lower inner margin) to volume 1, 2 other engraved plates, dated 1793, by Hawkins after Corbould, contemporary calf, gilt spine, black leather label; text spotted and stained, front joint cracked and tender. A so-so copy. As I am accountable for a couple of commentaries on some of Smollett's novels, I am irresistibly reminded of the one-sentence notice of the 1762 first edition in book form in The Monthly Review: "Better than the common Novels, but unworthy the pen of Dr. Smollet [sic]." It received a longer review in The Critical Review, where the reviewer referred to it as an "ingenious little piece," comparing it to Cervantes' work. The characters of Sir Launcelot and Crabshaw were delightful, "Nor are [they] the only portraits on which this author hath lavished the powers… Read More

London: Printed for J. Mawman..., 1819. 3 volumes. Large 8vo, 221 x 137 mms., pp. xi [xii blank], 388; vii [viii blank], 375 [376 blank]; viii, 398, 30 engraved plates (by J. Smith), contemporary half sheepskin, spines blocked in blind, red and black morocco labels, binder's cloth; some rubbing of joints, spine volume 1 a bit faded, but generally a very good set. Smollett (1721 - 1771) published his translation of Gil Blas in 1749, and there were at least 15 separate editions or reprints before the end of the 18th century. It was published just after his first novel The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), and Smollett was preparing his translation in 1747 1748. In the Preface to Roderick Random, Smollett acknowledges his assimilation of Le Sage's method: "The following sheets I have modelled on his plan, taking the liberty, however, to differ from him in the execution, where I thought his particular situations were uncommon, extravagant, or peculiar to the country in which the… Read More

Saint-Malo: Printed by Hovius son, Book-Seller; upon the Place of the Cathedral, 1784. 2 volumes in 1. 12mo, 162 x 93 mms., pp. [ii], xxxi [xxxii blank], 202; [2], 191 [192 adverts for books printed by Hovius, additional title-page for volume 2, contemporary sheepskin (a little dried); name inked out on top margin of recto of front free end-paper. Hovius printed this edition just in English, with the Chevalier Ramsay's "Discourse of Epic Poetry, and of the Excellence of the Poem of Telemachus" preceding the Des Maizeaux's English translation. In the same year at Saint-Malo, he published an edition with the French text and the English translation of facing pages. ESTC N473708 locates only the copy at NYPL. WorldCat locates several other copies.

London: Printed for H. Payne, and W. Cropley, at Dryden's Head in Pater-noster Row. 1761. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. Small 8vo, 157 x 95 mms., pp. vii (misfolded), 146 [147 Errata, 148 blank]; [iv], 156, contemporary calf, with darkened red and black labels; front joint volume 1 cracked and tender, front joint volume 2 amateurishly repaired, slight wear to extremities. John Hawkesworth (1720 - 1773) published this very popular work in 1761. It was written originally as a drama for produciion by David Garrick, but was transformed into narrative fiction when Garrick became concerned about production costs. An obvious model for the work was Samuel Johnson's Rasselas, but with genies and magic spells it is indeed a rather different work. Karina Williamson in her Oxford DNB entry recalls that "Comparing the two, Thomas Percy thought Johnson superior 'in style, and in having confined his narrative within the Limits of possibility', but Hawkesworth 'contrived to interest his… Read More

London: Printed by Benbow..., 1822. FIRST EDITION OF THIS TRANSLATION. 4 volumes, 170 x 102 mms., pp. ix [x note from publisher], 197 [108 blank]; [3] 4 - 220; [3] 4 - 225 [226 blank]; [3] 4 - 253 [254 blank], bound in contemporary half olive morocco, spines gilt in compartments. marbled boards with matching end-papers, top edges gilt, a very goo.d to fine set, with a tiny pink label - "Doxey/ Importer/ San Francisco" - on the rear paste-down end-paper of each volume The French author Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray (1760 – 1797) published this work in successive volume from 1787 - 1790, with a truncated and bowdlerized [sic, pardon the anachronism] published in 1793. This translation was published in the 1880s and not printed by Benbow and purports to be complete and unexpurgated.. The "scandalous" nature of the novel was modelled on the wife of a Parisian jeweller who divorced her husband and married the author. Another French edition of 1825 had seven rather… Read More

London: John Murray..., 1817. 8vo, 215 x 133 mms., pp. [ii], 210. BOUND WITH: The Second Part of Armata. London: John Murray..., 1817. 8vo, 215 x 133 mms., pp. [ii], vii, 209 [210 blank]. 2 volumes in 1, with the author's name on the title-page of the first volume, bound in contemporary half calf, marbled boards, gilt rules on spine, red leather. A very good copy IN 1817 THE YOUNG Scottish advocate, Thomas Erskine, in later life to become Lord Erskine and British Chancellor of the Exchequer, published a speculative utopian fiction, Armata, in which a ship sailing from New York to China is driven by storms into unknown waters and finds itself traversing a narrow and dangerous channel that connects the South Pole to a hitherto unsuspected satellite of Earth called Armata. This planet "had a ring like Saturn, which, by reason of our atmosphere, could not be seen at such an immense distance, and which was accessible only by a channel so narrow and guarded by surrounding rocks and… Read More

London, Printed by A. M. and R. R., [i. e., Anne Maxwell and Robert Roberts] for Dorman Newman..., 1682. Folio, 320 x 200 mms., pp. [xii], 171 [172 blank]. BOUND WITH: Bentivolio and Urania. The Second Part, In Two Books. The Fourth Edition. London, Printed by R. T. and R. H. [Evan Tyler and Ralph Holt] for Dorman Newman, 1682. Folio, pp. [xii], 219 [220 blank, 221 - 236 Index] bound in full contemporary calf, red leather label; top of spine chipped. A good copy with a contemporary ownership inscription in messy ink, "Tho: Lucas His Booke." Ingelo (1620/12 - 1683), though born in Bristol, attended Edinburgh University and received his first degree in 1641. He was incorporated at Cambridge in 1644, held a number of posts there, but left in left in 1646 or 1647 to be minister of All Saints, Bristol. His congregation did not much like his dandified dress, nor his love of music (full disclosure: I became a "fan" when I read his declaration that "take away his… Read More

London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley..., 1831. FIRST BRITISH EDITION. 3 volumes. Large 12mo, 190 x 111 mms., pp. [ii], iv, 292; [ii], 3090 [310 blank]; [ii], 286, contemporary half green morocco, richly gilt spines with title and volume numbers blocked in gilt, decorative cloth sides; some slight scuffs and marks to binding, but generally a very good and attractive set, with the amorial bookplate of Earl Granville, i. e., Granville George Leveson-Gowe, second Earl Granville (1815–1891), politician and M. P.; and the small binder's stamp for "White 24 Pall Mall" on the top margin of the front paste-down end-paper. Cooper (1789 - 1851) published this edition before the American edition, and it was the only edition that he proof-read. He revised the text for an edition printed in 1834. Mary Shelley reviewed the novel in the 16 January 1832 Westminster Review, without unbridled enthusiasm, but this endorsement would bring cheer to the heart of any writer: "The Bravo… Read More

Exeter: J&. B. Williams, 1829. 3 volumes. 16mo, pp. [ii], 262; [ii], 238; [ii], 237 [238 blank], including half-title in each volume, woodcut frontispiece in each volume, contemporary sheepskin, gilt spines; front cover volume 1 detached, tear in title-page. joints on other volumes a little rubbed and worn. First published in 1796 and frequently reprinted and translated into French and German, Mrs. Roche's representation of the romantic Adela provoked admiration and no doubt imitation.

London: John and Robert Maxwell..., no date 1879. FIRST BOOK EDITION. 3 volumes. 8vo, 181 x 120 mms., pp. [iv], 397 [398 blank]; [iv], 302; [iv], 288, contemporary half maroon calf, marbled boards, spines gilt in compartments with title in gilt; some wear to extremities but very good set, with the armorial bookplate of the author Richard Combe Miller (1841 -1916) on the front paste-down end-paper of each volume; and Miller's autograph in ink on the recto of the front free end-paper of each and below his autograph that of M. Meakin. The novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon (married name Maxwell) (1835-1915) worked as an actor from the age of 22, but began writing short stories and poems in 1859, publishing her first book, Garibaldi and Other Poems, in 1861. She became the companion, as it were, of the publisher John Maxwell who also published the sensationalist novel Lady Audley's Secret as a serial in 1861. The Cloven Foot does not disappoint by way of sensationalist content, involving… Read More

London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies..., 1809. 2 volumes. 8vo, pp. xi [xii blank], 412; [ii], 426, contemporary calf, red leather labels; front joint volume 2 cracked and tender, bindings otherwise a little rubbed and dried.

Londra No Publisher [?John Picard] 1724. FIRST ITALIAN EDITION. 12mo, 147 x 88 mms., pp. [x], 166, engraved frontispiece, recently rebound in full maroon morocco, raised bands, title in gilt on spine, all edges gilt. A fine copy. The Conscious Lovers was first performed on 7 November 1722, and, according to Calhoun Winton in ODNB, "It was his greatest success in the theatre, though not his best play, and its place in theatrical history—with its pathetic, or tragicomic, main plot and comic subplot—is still the subject of critical debate." This translation is by Paolo Rolli (1687 - 1785), who worked in London from 1715 until 1744. By 1791, The Conscious Lovers had reached a 15th edition, but Rolli's translation does not seem to have been reprinted. Sinopoli (Franco): Dalla repubblica letteraria alla letteratura europea: Paolo Rolli tra Italia e Inghilterra (2013). Rodney M. Baine: "The Publication of Steele's 'Conscious Lovers'" in Studies in… Read More

Penzance: Printed for the Editor by T. Vigurs..., 1803. 12mo, 185 x 107 mms., pp. xiv [xv - 17] 18 - 265 [266 errata], including half-title, uncut, rebound in half chocolate brown calf, marbled boards, morocco labels, in 2000 by Hilaria Honess, Hayle, with a ms. note to that effect on the lower margin of the front paste-down end-paper, below the bookplate of Antony Charles Thomas. A very good copy. Set on the island of Lesbos, this is the only known work by the second century Greek author, Longus. It was first published in modern times, in 1559, in a French translation by Jacques Amyot. This English translation is by Charles Valentine Le Grice (1773–1858), It was noticed in The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine in 1803. The reviewer noted that the work had "undergone more translations than almost any production of ancient Greece." He or she adds that "selectly translated" is not good English, but that "the present translator evidently means, that he has… Read More

London: Printed by J. Wright...For Vernor and Hood..., Longman and Reese..., 1804. 2 volumes. 8vo, 208 x 126 mms., pp. 350 [351 adverts, 352 blank]; [iv], 395 [396 colophon], including half-title in each volume, engraved portrait (after Titian) of Boccaccio as frontispiece in volume 1, engraved vignette on each title-page, contemporary tree calf, red and green morocco labels; joints on volume 1 cracked (but holding), but a good set. This translation by Charles Balguy (1708 - 1767) was first published in 1741, and ODNB claims that it was many times reprinted. The present set does seem to be a much expanded second edition, with a great deal of additional material. The revision is by Edward Dubois (1774 - 1850), who published A Piece of Family Biography in 1799 and Old Nick: a Satirical Story in 1801. The notice in The European Magazine and London Review, for 1804, having asserted that Il Decamerone had always been "considered too free in its language for general perusal" praises… Read More

London: Prnted for C. G. Seyffert n Pall-mall. 1760. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. Small 8vo, pp. [viii], 168, contemporary calf, recently rebacked, raised bands between gilt rules, red leather label; lacks half-title and last leaf of Contents, pp. 1 -2 repaired, first three leaves of text dampstained, but clean after that. Mentions or discussions of this work appear in scholarly books on eighteenth-century erotica, e. .g, Karen Harvey: Sex and Gender in the Eighteenth Century (2004), but it is really a fairy story with occasional snatches of possible flagellation or other such popular activities for the 18th century gallant. It was mentioned or reviewed in at least three periodicals, The Monthly Review for 1760 (which suggested the original was in French). The Critical Review confirmed the French origin: "This is a wretched translation of a silly attempt to humour in the French, with scarce any other addition than that of the title-page." Sir Walter Scott had a copy in his library at… Read More

London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley..., 1832. 12mo, 163 x 97 mms., pp. [ii], [3] 4 - 476, contemporary half calf, gilt spine, black leather label, marbled boards; lacking engraved title-page, binding a bit worn, but a good copy. The Orkney-born novelist Mary Brunton [née Balfour] (1778–1818) published her first novel, Self Control, in 1811; Discipline was published in 1814, and within two years had achieved three editions. In a rather gushing tribute to Brunton shortly after her death, The Scots Magazine devoted several pages to both Self-Conrol and Discipline. While it concluded that the latter was inferior to the former, the author, E. E., asserts, "Neither of them shews much originality either of plot or incident; but the interweaving of engaging narrative, with a display of the effects of religious principle, will make them long regarded as among the best books of amusement which can safely be put into the hands of the young."

London: Geo. Routledge & Co., Farringdon Street, New York: 10, Beekman Street. 1854. 8vo, 160 x 97 mms., pp. [ii], 306, contemporary half calf, marbled boards, black leather label; binding a little rubbed and worn, but a good copy with the armorial bookplate of Horace T. N. Meade, Trinity College Dublin on the front paste-down end-paper. Catherine Grace Frances More (née Moody, 1798 - 1861) began her literary career in her early 20s, shortly after her marriage to Lieutenant Charles Arthur Gore, by whom she had ten children, two of whom survived to adulthood. Winifred Hughes writes in ODNB, "After a succession of historical fictions during the 1820s, she came into her own with Women as they Are, or, The Manners of the Day (1830), a 'silver fork', or fashionable, novel which immediately established her as a leading practitioner of the genre. Over the next three decades she produced a great number of popular titles, many of them under the imprint of Henry Colburn, the… Read More