Man by Bage Robert, First Edition (15 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Fair - Worn (browned). First Edition.

First Edition. Good copy. in quarter buckram cloth over paper boards with a gilt-blocked label to the spine. Pages tanned as with age. Remains particularly well-preserved overall. Physical Description: vii, 262 pages. 3 Kg.

First Edition. Bookplate on front free end-paper. Fine copy in the original gilt-blocked cloth-backed boards, in a slip-case. Slightest suggestion only of dust-dulling to the panel edges. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description: vii, 262 pages : illustrations ; 23cm. Subjects: Aristocracy (Social class) ; Fiction. 3 Kg.

First Edition. Good copy. in quarter buckram cloth over paper boards with a gilt-blocked label to the spine. Pages tanned as with age. Remains particularly well-preserved overall. Physical Description: vii, 262 pages. 1 Kg.

Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. 1st Edition. Publisher - Turnstile Press, London, 1951. 1st ed. Edited by Vaughan Wilkins. Good condition book, endpapers browned, areas of darkening to boards, solid binding, corners and spine tips crushed and fraying. Unclipped jacket with many chips and area of loss to spine, also areas of browning.

First Edition. Bookplate on front free end-paper. Fine copy in the original gilt-blocked cloth-backed boards, in a slip-case. Slightest suggestion only of dust-dulling to the panel edges. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description: vii, 262 pages : illustrations ; 23cm. Subjects: Aristocracy (Social class) ; Fiction. 1 Kg.

Cloth. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First Edition. Hardback. Foxing to end inside covers. Slight wear to D/J. Protective plastic covering around D/J. This sprightly, ironic and whimsical novel should appeal to every reader with a palate fro the dry wine of literature. The author eveolved his own formula for a palatable mixture of romance and satire and never allows himself or his hero to preach for too long. A sprightly and daring young person, Miss Fluart, one of the many engaging chanracters in the book, is usually at hand to punctuate this compacency and keep the atmosphere of the book light, attractive and gay. 248 pp. ( We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. etc.).

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. First Edition. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1982. First edition. Tall 8vo. [viii],245pp. A facsimile of the 1796 first edition published by the Minerva Press reprinted with four sheets of the original per page, together with a 22 page introduction. Original pale brown cloth, gilt lettering. Small label of former (private) owner to front free endpaper. A very good, bright copy in a browned & edgeworn dustwrapper (latter in removable protective plastic sleeve).

Cloth. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. First Edition. The book is bright and firm. The dj (protected, unclipped) has a fair degree of wear , browning to the spine / rear panel, and a few small tears. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. First edition thus. Three volumes. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979. [The Novel 1720-1805, A Garland Series]. A three volume facsimile of the 1796 first edition published by the Minerva Press. Original orange cloth, black lettering & decoration. A near fine set. (**PLEASE READ CAREFULLY** - Heavy/overweight item weighing 1.5 kg packed, therefore additional postage will be required for overseas orders. International customers, please ask for a prior shipping quote).

Full Leather. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 8vo. 1796. 3 vols in 1.(1)244(4).(1)243(1). 2 blanks,(1)268). Wanting all half titles as usual, with 2 ll ads in vol 1, wanting 1 ad lf in vol 2. Cased in early straight grained red morocco. Rebacked to style. a.e.g.and gilt ruled borders. Images available on request.

First Edition. otherwise a handsome copy in contemporary speckled calf, flat spines ruled in compartments with black morocco labels lettered and numbered in gilt. in contemporary unlettered half calf over marbled boards, a little rubbed, spines numbered in gilt. Four volumes, 12mo (176 x 98 mm), pp. [iv], vii, [i], 288; [iv], 243, [1]; [iv], 275, [1]; [iv], 272, with the half-titles, marginal tear or fraying to II, I3, small marginal stain III, G10, occasional small marks and creases, The first of Bage's two great novels, second in importance only to his masterpiece, Hermsprong; or, Man as he is not, 1796 (although Tompkins ranks Man as He Is as 'Bage's best book'). In this, his fifth novel, Bage explores the redemption of a fashionable young man who is saved from the aristocratic vices of society both by his love for a virtuous woman and by his political encounters in France with some of the moderate leaders of the French Revolution. Robert Bage, a paper manufacturer from the midlands, only published his first novel at the age of 53 when his business had suffered financial losses which he was trying to recoup. It turned out that he was a brilliant novelist who wrote in all six novels, three of which were printed at the Minerva Press. Influenced by the ideas of the French revolution, Bage?s novels are satirical and revolutionary in tone. Inspired by the writings of Voltaire, Rousseau and Thomas Paine, his novels are reminiscent of the writings of William Godwin and Thomas Holcroft. Godwin and Shelley are both known to have admired Bage?s writings. Apart from his incisive satire of the social follies of the time, Bage must also be noted for the brilliant lightness of his perceptions of character, for 'that half-acid, half-tolerant revelation of the permanent foibles of human nature in which Bage anticipated Jane Austen' (Blakey p. 64). According to the publisher's advertisement in The Star, June 26, 1792, Man as He Is 'has been pronounced the first-rate novel in the English language'. However, although three of Bage's earlier novels were included by Scott in Balantyne's Novelists' Library, he included neither Man as He Is nor Hermpsrong, objecting mainly to 'the mad philosophy'. Bage's political opinions were too extreme for Scott who objected to his tendency to locate virtue and generosity too exclusively in the lower classes. Bage also applied equal standards to men and women and his heroines enjoy a measure of sexual as well as intellectual freedom. All of which made the novels too subversive for Scott, whose censorial selection procedures may have done their bit to keep Bage out of the mainstream. 'In their keen perception of the absurdities of society, and their shrewd strokes of character, Bage's novels are far superior to the common run of Minerva publications. The whole tone of his work, also, is particularly refreshing after the inflated sentiment or perfervid horrors of young ladies and their 'first literary attempts', for Bage had a vigorous and original mind, packed only with first-hand knowledge of men and affairs. Yet it is not only by contrast that he holds a distinguished place. His sound judgement of character, and the pleasing irony of his style, give him at least a place in the company of Fielding, Austen and Thackeray' (Blakey, p. 65). 'What Bage brought to the novel was a great increase of intellectual content. His active, liberal and independent mind had ranged through a variety of subjects, and his books are full of thought. Bage's tolerance, his readiness to live and let live, is marked in all his books. It is the necessary and far from exorbitant price paid by a man in order that he may enjoy to the full the company of his fellow-beings' (Tompkins, p. 203). Blakey p. 159; Gasrside, Raven & Schöwerling 1792:29; see also pp. 62-65; J.M.S. Tompkins, The Popular Novel in England, 1770-1800, pp. 196-197. ESTC t077679.

First Edition. in contemporary tree calf, flat spines ruled in gilt with red morocco labels lettered in gilt and oval red morocco labels numbered in gilt. Three volumes, 12mo (170 x 100 mm), pp. [ii], 244, 3, [1] advertisements; [ii], 242, [2] advertisements; [ii], 268, some creasing in gathering L of vol. III, with small marginal tear and small hole in L6, with loss of one letter, Bage, a paper manufacturer from the midlands, was a brilliant radical novelist, three of whose novels were printed at the Minerva Press (?undoubtedly the most distinguished novelist ever connected with the Minerva Press?, says Blakey). Influenced by the ideas of the French revolution, Bage?s novels are satirical and revolutionary in tone and are reminiscent of the writings of William Godwin and Thomas Holcroft. Of all his novels, Hermsprong owes most to the ideas of the French Revolution, in particular the writings of Rousseau, as it uses the figure of the ?noble savage? to reveal the corruption and cruelty of society. ?Some of the most ingenious arguments for the savage state appear in Robert Bage's novels?, writes Edna L. Steeves in her essay on the noble savage. ?In Hermsprong (1796) the eponymous hero is a 'natural' man, the son of German parents who come to the American West to engage in trade with the Indians. Raised with Indian children, Hermsprong is, as the subtitle of the novel points out, 'Man as he is not'. The implication is clear: here is man in his native goodness and innocence, happy in a life more archaic and uncomplicated than modern civilisation affords, man in short as he should be, uncontaminated by luxury and extravagance. To William Godwin, and to many likeminded men at the turn of the century, it was but a short step from the conception of the ideal of savage society to the ideal of absolute democracy and equalitarianism, the creed of the political radical? (Steeves, Edna L., The Journal of Modern African Studies, No. 1 March, 1973). Although three of Bage's earlier novels were included by Scott in Balantyne's Novelists' Library, he included neither Man as He Is nor Hermpsrong, objecting mainly to 'the mad philosophy'. Bage's political opinions were too extreme for Scott who objected to his tendency to locate virtue and generosity too exclusively in the lower classes. Bage also applied equal standards to men and women and his heroines enjoy a measure of sexual as well as intellectual freedom. All of which made the novels too subversive for Scott, whose censorial selection procedures may have done their bit to keep Bage out of the main-stream. Apart from his incisive satire of the social follies of the time, Bage must also be noted for the brilliant lightness of his perceptions of character, for 'that half-acid, half-tolerant revelation of the permanent foibles of human nature in which Bage anticipated Jane Austen' (Blakey p. 64). ?What Bage brought to the novel was a great increase of intellectual content. His active, liberal and independent mind had ranged through a variety of subjects, and his books are full of thought. Bage's tolerance, his readiness to live and let live, is marked in all his books. It is the necessary and far from exorbitant price paid by a man in order that he may enjoy to the full the company of his fellow-beings' (Tompkins, p. 203). 'In their keen perception of the absurdities of society, and their shrewd strokes of character, Bage's novels are far superior to the common run of Minerva publications. The whole tone of his work, also, is particularly refreshing after the inflated sentiment or perfervid horrors of young ladies and their 'first literary attempts', for Bage had a vigorous and original mind, packed only with first-hand knowledge of men and affairs. Yet it is not only by contrast that he holds a distinguished place. His sound judgement of character, and the pleasing irony of his style, give him at least a place in the company of Fielding, Austen and Thackeray' (Blakey, p. 65). Blakey p. 229 a.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. four volumes, contemporary-style half-leather over marbled boards, decorated in gilt, ex Bradford Libraries with their accession number to verso of titlepages volumes I and III (both laid down), occasional closed tear repaired with archival tape, scattered spotting, a handsome set. first edition; 288, 243, 275 and 272 pages; keywords: fiction; Blakey page 159; Garside, Raven and Schowerling 1792:29.

3 volumes ( of 4, lacking volume 1). Small 8vo, pp. 243:(1, advert.), 275:(1, advert.), & 272, contemporary full marbled calf with burgundy lettering and numbering pieces; lacking 1 numbering piece, joints rubbed but firm. Damp mark to some foremargins, one leaf with early marginal repair. Bound without the half-titles. A tragedy that this extremely rare first edition of this work is lacking the first volume. Only the 2nd edition of 1796 has appeared at auction during the past 30 years and then only on three occasions.