[Bonhôte, Elizabeth]
Olivia; or, Deserted Bride
By the Author of Hortensia, the Rambles of Frankly, and the Fashionable Friend. Dublin: for W. Watson [and 6 others], 1787. 2 volumes, 12mo, xi [1] 274, [4] 272 pp., contemporary speckled tan calf, twin labels to spines, spines and covers ruled in gilt, edges sprinkled red, bound with the half-titles, volume 1 final leaf with tear to upper fore corner not affecting text, volume 2 with spill-burns to K12 (2)
Pierre Clément de Laussat (1756-1835), last French governor of Louisiana, with his engraved bookplate to front pastedowns.
First Dublin edition, the same year as the London edition which is presumed to have priority, very rare in any state, with no copy of either edition appearing in auction records since the 1940s. 'Elizabeth Bonhôte published seven fictional works, all of which reflected the contemporary taste for novels of sentiment and sensibility, combining "a reaction against coarseness, preoccupation with conventional morality and a strong bent towards emotionalism" … They appealed to a growing female readership catered for by the circulating libraries' (ODNB); several of her works were printed by William Lane's Minerva Press.