Cousin Geoffrey, The Old Bachelor. A Novel. To which is Added Claude Stocq

Descripción

Presumed first edition half leather bound hardcover. Marbled boards and raised bands to spine plus gilt titling. 366 pp. Clean and well bound. Edited by Theodore Hook. Though there is no author credited for these works, Cousin Geoffrey and Claude Stocq were written by Harriet Maria Gordon Smythies (1813 1883), also known as Harriette Smythies, a prolific writer of sensational Victorian novels, publishing 20 books between 1838 and 1875. As early as 1945, English writer Montague Summers would lament that Smythies had been "undeservedly and [.] completely forgotten". The lack of credit to Mrs. Smythies for many of her published works was due to her husband's dislike of her output of fiction: "a poem might be approved, and a novel or two (if anonymous) tolerated, but so rapid a succession of romances was not to be endured". Cousin Geoffrey would "firmly establish the reputation of the anonymous authoress", who at the time of its publication editor Theodore Hook would refer to only as "a lady most favourably known to the public" - Smythies being a socilite who moved easily among literary circles in Victorian England. (Summers, Montague. Mrs. Gordon Smythies. Modern Language Notes 60, no. 6 (1945): 359 64). Book in good condition given its age. With large permanent marker cross-outs to pastedown and "18th" written in pen. Otherwise unmarked. Leather corners missing to rear board. All corners heavily worn and frayed. Marble paper to boards extensively rubbed, scuffed, and tanned. Small tear to upper corner and heavy soiling to pp. 365 (the final page) and rear free endpaper - text still legible. Mild foxing to page interiors, page block evenly toned. Rest of the pages remarkably bright for being nearly two centuries old, a bit of light toning mostly to margins and not affecting text. Binding sound. This is an excellent example of an uncommon title. N° de ref. del artículo ABE-1681929248366

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