[BROUGHAM (Henry, Lord).]. Albert Lunel; Or, The Château de Langeudoc. In three volumes. London: Charles Knight & Co., 22, Ludgate Street, 1844. 3 Vols., lge.12mo; half-title present in volumes one and two, that to volume two being a single inset; none called for in volume three; integral advertisement leaf at end of volume one; final leaf of volume two a single inset; pp.viii+253+[i (printer’s imprint)]+[ii]; vi+241+[i (printer’s imprint)]; iv+284; drab boards, paper spine labels; top- and fore- edges uncut, lower-edges rough trimmed. Volumes one and three re-backed without disturbing the end-papers, and with the original backstrips laid-on; spine to volume two restored at head and tail with matching paper; slight flexion-crease to back cover of volume one; otherwise a fine copy.

GB £310.00

US $508.40

The original issue, in boards and labels: later copies were in cloth, and there also was a ‘remainder’ issue with a cancel title-page. In a long note Sadleir comments on Bohn’s statement in the 1865 edition of Lowndes’ ‘Bibliographers’ Manual’ that “it is said not above five copies are extant", explaining this by reference to the Frederick Locker copy, which Sadleir possessed and which had been the author’s own. This contained a holograph note reading: “The only persons who ever saw this book were Rogers, Lyndhurst, Croker, Lady C. Lindsay & Mrs Dawson Damer.” It would appear that having written the novel, a roman á clé about an intimate circle actually staged in the Château at Cannes built in his daughter’s memory in 1840, but ostensibly a tale of pre-revolutionary France (though there are episodes set elsewhere: for instance among the slaves of Cuba), Brougham had doubts about publication. His initial ones are evident in his dedication to Samuel Rogers, where he wrote with conscious misdirection: “Should such an accident ever happen as your indulging in any curiosity upon so trifling a matter, you will find the mystery in which your unknown admirer is wrapt impossible to pierce. Your sagacity may, from internal evidence, serve to point a conjecture towards France and her colonies, as his country, — her language, as that in which his book may have been written.” Rogers presumably informed him that his identity would certainly be guessed, and he then asked advice from the other friends mentioned above: in consequence deciding on suppression. He then appears to have bought up all the copies that had been bound and sequestered them, for he told Forsyth that the bulk of the original edition was sealed in a cellar and “I dare say many years hence someone will dig this up and publish it.” Whether he thought he had bought the entire stock we cannot guess. Certainly the unbound copies remained with Knight (probably at his printers’ or binders’), though he never advertised it in ‘The English Catalogue’, and a few copies were put up by him in cloth, presumably after Brougham’s death in 1868. Knight retired shortly afterwards (he died in 1873) and the remaining sheets were sold to C.H. Clarke, who issued them with his own cancel title leaf dated 1872. At some point also the copies sealed in Brougham’s cellar were excavated and put on sale. Sadleir, 353, recording two copies; Wolff, 848: both listing the original issue.
Ref: CRT818782