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Published by A and W. Galignani and Co., 1840
Seller: Aeon Bookstore, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Book First Edition
Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. 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.
Published by 17 October ; Colchester, 1838
Manuscript / Paper Collectible
4to, 3pp. Bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with slight loss to second leaf caused by opening of red wax seal (part of which still adheres), and minor nicking to edges. Begins: 'The task you set me was a task indeed [.] my first attempt at translation'. He comments on some of the difficulties involved ('The Cara so often repeated in the original is beautiful in repetition while it's angliciz'd Dear is so degraded by vulgar use'). Ends first page with transcription of 'the Bishop's Charming Elegy', and the words 'Now don't look on the other side - But if you can't help it please to shut your critical eye Mr Richard'. A further discussion of the poem and its translation conclude the letter. Some account of Smythies ('This remarkable man') can be found in Montague Summers article on his wife: 'Mrs. Gordon Smythies', Modern Language Notes, June 1945. From the Twining family archive.
Published by Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1849
Seller: G. W. Stuart, Jr., ABAA(emeritus), Yuma, AZ, U.S.A.
Two volumes, octavos, original quarter muslin, boards, original printed paper spine labels soiled and chipped, spines lightly faded, contents slightly age browned and trifle foxed but not offensively so. Altogether, a good set in respectable original condition. Harriette Smythies wrote, according to Block, eight novels of which Cousin Geoffrey was her second and her best known work. Hook doubtless contributed his own expertise in the editing of it and though he tried to persuade Mrs. Smythies to allow him to edit her other novels, nothing came of it. Her novels had a low survival rate. Sadleir had none, and Wolff had but one. Neither had the first English or the first American edition of Cousin Geoffrey. First American edition.