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Book Auction - Fiction - Signed Bookers, etc
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Title: The History of Sir Charles Grandison and the Hon. Miss Byron; in a Series of Letters
Author: Samuel Richardson Publisher: C, Cooke (London) Printing Year:c. 1760 Condition/Details: Bound in leather with bright gilt embossing to spine, this antique volume is a scarce early edition of the English author's third and final novel. Originally published in seven volumes in 1753 - 1754. this is a two-volume edition bound as one. "Richardson's "History of Sir Charles Grandison", marks a significant departure from his earlier works. Though the novel, like its predecessors, is written in the epistolary mode and shares many thematic interests in common with the much-slighted but popular "Pamela" (1740) and the author's tragic masterpiece "Clarissa" (1747-1748), Grandison enacts a crucial displacement of subject and perspective. In response to entreaties from many of his attentive correspondents, and possibly as a reaction to the enthusiastic reception of Fielding's "Tom Jones" (1749), the increasingly ailing Richardson was driven to write a final novel centered around a "good man" rather than a good woman. Richardson was all too aware that his previous novels offered few positive models of masculinity amongst the rakish Mr. B. and devious Lovelace, the cruel Mr. Harlowe, the ineffectual Hickman and the intellectually inferior Solmes. Grandison, as the novel's preface declared, would redress the balance by presenting the reader with "the Example of a Man acting uniformly well thro' a Variety of trying Scenes, because all his actions are regulated by one steady Principle: A Man of Religion and Virtue; of Liveliness and Spirit; accomplished and agreeable; happy in himself, and a Blessing to others." The character of Sir Charles was designed to redefine the virtues of the hero as both Christian and sentimental. Whilst possessing the martial accomplishments traditionally associated with the hero, Sir Charles disarms others with reason and the example of his own virtue rather than his sword." (courtesy of Literary Encyclopedia)The work is "embellished with fifteen superb engravings", including a frontispiece portrait of Richardson. The volume shows external age/wear, with one chipped top corner and taping to edges of the spine. The book is solidly bound with clean pages. The book measures approximately 5.75" x 8.5" and contains 436/522 pages plus two pages of publisher's advertisements. Shipping cost (within the U.S.) for this lot will be: $4.50 ImagesClick on thumbnails to see larger images:
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