VIGNETTES: STORIES .

Rita (pseudonym of Eliza Margaret Jane Gollan [Mrs. W. Desmond Humphreys, formerly Mrs. Karl Otto Edmund Booth (or von Booth)]

Published by F. V. White & Co, London, 1896

About this Item

Octavo, pp. [1-6] [1] 2-312, publisher's dark green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold, publisher's monogram stamped in blind on rear panel, top edge untrimmed, fore and bottom edges rough trimmed. First edition. "Despite titles like 'In the Vaults,' 'The Spectre,' and 'Haunted,' the stories in VIGNETTES are not supernatural. Instead, they are sentimental Victorian women's fiction that often incorporate sensationalist and Gothic elements, such as accidental murders, revelations involving characters' true identities, and supposedly haunted, abandoned estates. A number of the stories feature not only orphans who, rather than dying alone on the streets of London, end up secure and well loved, but also men and women who ultimately repent of past cruel deeds they have perpetrated. Given that many of the stories take place on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and have redemptive endings, the author probably originally wrote these pieces for publication in Victorian Christmas annuals. The best of the tales is 'Haunted,' in which Ruiz, an orphan from Spain, comes to live with his uncle's family in England. Believing he has accidentally killed one of his cousins, Ruiz flees his new home and seeks shelter inside decaying Chalford Hall with the last surviving member of the notorious Chalford family, an elderly astrologer who educates Ruiz in hopes of having the boy finish a scholarly treatise he has been working on in isolation for decades" (Boyd White). Mrs. Humphreys's considerable output of romantic fiction mainly targeted female library subscribers. In his foreword to Her RECOLLECTIONS OF A LITERARY LIFE (1936) Philip Gibbs described Humphreys as "a born storyteller." In later life she became a keen follower of Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891) and ardently devoted to the tenets of Theosophy. Hubin (1994), p. 684. Early owner's signature and date in pencil on the front free endpaper. Slight spine lean, endpapers tanned, a very good copy with clean binding and bright cover stamping. A scarce book. (#170584).

Seller Inventory # 170584

Bibliographic Details

• Title: VIGNETTES: STORIES .
• Publisher: F. V. White & Co, London
• Publication Date: 1896
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • Victorian Fiction
  • Mystery & Crime