Second Thoughts.

BROUGHTON, Rhoda.

Published by London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1880

About this Item

First edition, this copy in a beautiful and unusual example of a Victorian cloth publisher's binding. This "charming fairytale around the theme of growing up and distinguishing reality from appearance" (Terry, p. 127) is likened by scholars to Pride and Prejudice. Broughton (1840-1920) was a well-connected novelist who began her career with sensationalist romances before her fiction turned to celebrated and witty studies of social mores. Amongst her literary acquaintances was Oscar Wilde, who "was said to have felt threatened by Broughton as someone who might out-talk and out-epigram him, and soon declined to invite her to any more of his parties. Broughton retaliated with the satiric portrait of an aesthetic poet in Second Thoughts" (Orlando). This copy has variant floral endpapers; Sadleir, who mentions that "Broughton 'firsts' are not common in any state", only notes black endpapers for this title. Provenance: The Bentley file copy; Douglas C. Ewing copy (bookplate; sale, Christie's New York, 7 April 1978, lot 56); Stephen C. Massey, purchased from Pickering and Chatto, 25 May 1982. Sadleir 376. Reginald Charles Terry, Victorian Popular Fiction, 1860-80, 1983. 2 vols, octavo. Original unglazed multicoloured floral chintz cloth, floral patterned endpapers. Housed in a custom blue solander box lined with blue silk. Bookplate of Douglas C. Ewing. Spines lightly faded, vol. I spine gently cocked. A near-fine copy.

Seller Inventory # 180968

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Second Thoughts.
• Publisher: London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1880
• Edition: 1st Edition