Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
IMPORTANT!
This is the ROBERT TEMPLE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE. It contains descriptions and notes relating to almost 18,000 titles in the fields of British and American literature, being the bulk of the stock that has passed through our hands since 1984, with the addition of a few earlier items of especial interest. Books currently in stock are not included, and it is therefore necessary to supplement your search by looking at our Current Catalogues. For the most part full bibliographical descriptions are given, though for some earlier items, catalogued when computing space was more restricted the details given are quite brief. For an account of the conventions adopted, the abbreviations used, and reference sources consulted, please see our information pages.
Please note: The arrangement here is the same as that adopted in our current catalogues, and as there our larger files are presented in sections for ease of downloading. At the end of each section you are invited to browse the next. |
ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ALMA TADEMA (Laurence). The fate-spinner. London: E.B. Mortlock, 39 Victoria Street, Westminster, 1900 [i.e., 1899]. Med. 8vo; pp.[viii]+79+[i (blank)]; light greenish blue calendered wrappers printed in black on sides; a.e. uncut. Outer half inch or so of some large fore-edges lightly marked by damp (this not approaching text); otherwise a fine copy of a rare and delicate book.
Signed by the author on the half-title. This short novel by the elder daughter of the painter Sir Laurence Alma-Tadema was printed privately for the author in a presumably small edition. It appears never to have been advertised for sale. Not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff, the British or London Library Catalogues, or NUC.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ALMA-TADEMA (Laurence). The crucifix: A Venetian phantasy & Other tales. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 45 Albemarle Street, 1895. Blank before half-title; pp.[viii]+[171]+[i (blank)]; ivory coarse buckram blocked gilt and copper, lettered copper on front cover, blocked copper, lettered copper and gilt on spine; a.e. uncut. Spine darkened, and sides slightly marked, copper and gilt on spine both oxydised; otherwise a nice copy. Scarce.
Not in Sadleir; this title not in Wolff. Very 'nineties in style and manner - as befits the work of a contributor to The Yellow Book. The author was the elder daughter of the painter Sir Laurence Alma-Tadema.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
A.L.O.E. [i.e., Miss C.M. Tucker]. Idols in the heart: A tale. T. Nelson and Sons, 1860. F'cap 8vo; Integral advertisement leaf and blank precede title-page; half-title not called for; integral advertisement leaf at end; bright pink bead-grain cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, gilt on spine, blocked gilt on front cover, lettered gilt and bright pink through gilt on front cover and spine; end-papers coated yellow. Slight darkening of spine and adjacent edge of back cover; otherwise a nice copy.
Not in the Osborne Catalogue. The British Library Catalogue lists this title as 1859, which may possibly have been the date of receipt (and actual publication) rather than the date on the title-page, many books published late in the year being in those days dated a year ahead. Nelsons, however, dated all their reprints on the title-page as well as all their firsts, and almost never indicated status, so that it is in fact impossible to tell with virtually any Nelson book printed in the nineteenth century (and a good few later ones) whether it is in fact a reprint, except by prior knowledge of what the date should be. The British Library unfortunately no longer has this book, it having been destroyed by bombing during the war, and we have not been able otherwise to check. Probably a reprint, therefore, but just possibly not.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
A.L.O.E. [i.e., Miss C.M. Tucker]. The Golden fleece; Or, Who Wins the Prize? T. Nelson and Sons, 1883. Short cr.8vo; half-title not called for; wood-engraved frontispiece and six plates on text-paper, only the frontispiece being included in the pagination; pp.131+[1 (blank)]; diagonally fine ribbed olive green cloth, ruled and blocked blind on back cover, ruled and blocked red, lettered black, on front cover, ruled and blocked red, lettered gilt, black, and red on spine; end-papers printed with tendril, leaf, and bud design, reversed out, white on grey. Contemporary inscription on white recto of frontispiece; a little insignificant foxing; otherwise a fine copy.
Juvenile. This title not in the Osborne Catalogue.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
A.L.O.E. [i.e., Miss C.M. Tucker]. Christian Love and Loyalty. Edinburgh: Gall & Inglis, 6. [sic] George Street, N.D. [1862]. F'cap 8vo; steel-engraved frontispiece by T. Brown, and engraved title-page, precede start of text, the latter integral; other prelims. not called for; pp.200 (including engraved title); bevelled vertical wavy-grain royal blue cloth, ruled and elaborately blocked blind on sides, lettered and elaborately blocked gilt on spine; end-papers coated chocolate. A little light dusting passim, but in general a nice copy.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANDERSON (James). The life and adventures Of Timothy Gordon. To which is appended Pen and ink sketches of local Celebrities. By James Anderson, Author of "Gabriel Lindsay," "Widow Aikman's Story," "Leaves From my Diary," &c. Coatbridge: Alex. Pettigrew, Main Street; Glasgow: Porteous Brothers, 45 West Nile Street, 1880. Post 8vo; half-title apparently not called for; final blank; pp.357+[iii]; binder's blank at front and back; contemporary half-calf, ruled blind on sides, ruled and tooled gilt and blind, red spine label, moire horizontally ribbed puce cloth sides; a.e.g.; blue, red, and green head and tail bands; end-papers coated deep yellow. Calf peeled on corners; otherwise a very nice copy.
A rare provincially published novel, printed in Coatbridge. Not in the British Library Catalogue. The binding may possibly be that in which the book was originally issued. Set variously in Scotland and in South America, with some criminous content, including at least one passage of detection, but not essentially a novel of crime. The Sketches of the title-page occupy pp.325-357.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANDREAE (Percy). The signora, A tale. London, Smith, Elder, & Co., 15 Waterloo Place, 1895 (All rights reserved). 8pp. integral advertisements at end; pp.[iv]+323+[i (blank)]+[viii]; vertically fine ribbed darp turquoise cloth, embossed blind on front cover, lettered gilt on front cover and spine; a.e. uncut; end-papers printed with a conventional frond and dot pattern in brownish grey. Slight dulling of spine; first leaf of advertisements lacking, and two leaves of advertisements opened a little roughly; otherwise a fine copy.
Hubin, p.8, listing this as a title of undetermined status: it involves an attempted murder and suicide, and certainly a mystery, but is not essentially criminous.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANDREWS (Marion). The Child of the Lighthouse: A tale of the great war. Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., Paternoster Buildings, 1898. Sm.cr.8vo; blank before half-title; half-tone frontispiece and three illustrations by W.H.C. Groome, all arranged as plates, but on text-paper, and included in the pagination; 6pp. integral advertisements at end (the second leaf correctly continuing the signatures, but paginated erratically: 1, 2, 9, 13, 14, 15); pale grey buckram, blocked with publisher's monogram in black on back cover, printed all over with wood-block illustration in red, orange, green, white, and black, lettered black-shadowed, red-outlined grey, on front cover, and with all over wood-block illustration in red, orange, green, white, and black, lettered black, and black-shadowed red, on spine; a.e.g.; end-papers coated yellow. Slight marking of back cover; small, neat, ownership inscription on front blank; one or two small corners turned; a little scattered light foxing; otherwise a nice copy.
Not in Sadleir or Wolff. Juvenile.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The Adventures of Jean-Paul Choppart. London: Burns, Oates, and Company, 17 & 18 Portman Street and 63 Paternoster Row, N.D. [?c.1860]. F'cap 8vo; half/series title; wood-engraved frontispiece and vignette title-page, both on text-paper; twenty illustrations in text; blank, followed by publisher's inserted 4pp. catalogue, at end; blue patterned sand-grain cloth, blocked blind on sides, gilt on front cover, ruled, blocked, and lettered gilt, on spine; end-papers coated cream. Fine copy.
Issued as a volume in the ‘Entertaining Library'. According to the advertisements, a translation from the French. Not in Halkett & Laing, NSTC, or NUC.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Alone: An introspective work. Leonard Smithers & Co, 5 Old Bond Street W, 1898. Pp.[viii]+206; final leaf (?blank) excised, apparently before publication; black buckram, lettered white, blocked and lettered red, on front cover, lettered, and blocked with author's symbol, white, on spine; t.e. uncut, fore-edges mainly trimmed. Nice copy. Rare.
An exceedingly odd book, even for Smithers, consisting of the internalised retrospective ramblings of an educated female lunatic of lesbian and religious tendencies. The madness is very convincingly presented indeed! The author's name is given on the covers, the dedication, and also, less explicitly on the title-page as a symbol consisting of a capital ‘I' standing with its foot in the centre of an ‘O'. Not in Wolff.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The Amour of a Friar; Or, The adventures of the young capuchin; And The schemer. Translated from the French of L'Enfant du Carnival, And L'Homme Projets, by the celebrated novelist, Pigault-Lebrun. Wilton and Son, 245, High Holborn, 1825. Five wood-engravings in the text, the first signed G. Hering, the others unsigned: all illustrating the first work; pp.[ii]+222; original light brown boards, drab paper spine, paper spine label; a.e. uncut. Neatly rebacked with matching paper but the label almost wholly lacking; inner joints strengthened; small tear in front end-paper; one small marginal tear, not affecting text, and four leaves opened a little roughly; otherwise a fine copy, the second work being entirely unopened.
Issued originally in fourteen twopenny weekly numbers by Macdonald & Chambers, 7, York-street, Covent-garden, as the first volume of ‘Bell's French Novelist', the unsold sheets being apparently taken over by Wilton and Son, who provided the general title present here. The signatures throughout bear the legend ‘Vol.I., but the Wilton title gives no indication that further volumes were planned. In an Address to the Curious preceding the first work, the anonymous translator makes clear that the two novels have been altered considerably for their English readership. This address also includes an attack on Sir Walter Scott. Not in Sadleir, Wolff, Block, Halkett & Laing, or the British Library Catalogue; Summers records the same issue as this.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. A Mysterious family. By A new writer. Blackpool: Hargreaves and Wilson, Euston Street and New Road, N.D. [c.1890]. Globe 8vo; half-title not called for; pp.[iv]+311+[i (printer's imprint)]; three-quarter white buckram diagonally cut on sides, remainder of sides scarlet buckram, lettered black up spine and on front cover, gilt on front cover; end-papers printed with pattern of leaves in dark olive green. Slight marking of covers, but a very nice copy.
Not in Sadleir, Wolff, the British or London Library Catalogues, or NUC. A well-written first novel, re-issued in London by W.H. Allen in 1892. It is revealed by the dedication that the author was a woman resident in Colne, Lancashire. The book itself is set in the 1870s in landed Cornwall, bohemian London, or respectable, religious, Bloomsbury! Also touched on are the problems of Ireland - absentee Landlordism, etc. In this copy the following typographical errors have been observed: p.93, l.24, ‘ever' for ‘every'; p.196, l.8, [?]comma instead of colon after ‘talk'; l.9, full stop instead of comma after ‘wife'; p.300, l.28, ‘scapegoat' for ‘scapegrace'. They are probably without state or issue significance. The novel was printed as well as published in Blackpool.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The Ancient Britons, A Tale of Primeval Life. Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly, 1851. Sm.f'cap 8vo; half-title not called for; map frontispiece on text paper, included in the pagination; wood-engraved vignette on title-page; other illustrations in text; final blank, possibly a binder's blank (in which case the last leaf of text is a single inset); pp.[viii]+322+[?ii]; bright pink vertical wavy-grain cloth, elaborately ruled and pictorially blocked gilt on front cover, ruled, lettered, and very elaborately blocked gilt, lettered bright pink through gilt, on spine; a.e.g.; end-papers coated chocolate. One gathering slightly proud; otherwise an extremely fine bright copy.
A superb example of period cloth. Despite the sub-title, a historical story set in druidic/Roman Britain. Not in Wolff, the British Library Catalogue, or Halkett & Laing.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The Arabian nights' Entertainments: Consisting of One thousand and one Stories. In one volume. Embellished with nearly One hundred and fifty engravings. London: Printed for J. Limbird, No.143, Strand, near Somerset-House, 1824. Narrow demy 8vo; wood-engraved frontispiece and series title-page precede specific title-page; half-title not called for; numerous engravings in text; pp.[xiv]+556; contemporary half-calf, marbled boards, spine with four raised bands, black lettering-pieces, ruled and tooled gilt on spine; marbled edges and end-papers. Slight peeling to calf, and lettering-pieces more or less lacking; boards darkened and somewhat rubbed; a little scattered fingering, dusting, and spotting in text, but text in general nice.
Issued in thirty-five two-penny numbers each containing sixteen pages, as a volume of Limbird's ‘British Novelist'. The full text from the French of Galland - though Galland himself only translated the first part: in the Arabic there are thirty-six. Galland's work was first translated into English in 1705 - 8.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Bertie Lee; Or, The threshold of life. A Boy's Book. Edinburgh: Alexander Hislop & Company, N.D. [c.1868]. Pott 8vo; integral wood-engraved frontispiece by Paterson, not included in the pagination; integral advertisement leaf at end; pp.[xii]+190+[ii]; bevelled maroon sand grain cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, ruled and blocked gilt, lettered maroon through gilt on front cover and spine, lettered gilt on spine; end-papers coated chocolate. Some insignificant wear to head and tailbands; otherwise a nice copy.
Not in Sadleir, Wolff, Halkett & Laing, the British Library Catalogue, or NSTC.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The Biblicals, Or Glenmoyle Castle, A tale of modern times. Dublin, T. O'Flanagan, 26, Bachelor's-walk, 1830. 12mo, gathered in half sheets; half-title apparently not called for; leaf bearing Dedication follows title-leaf; errata leaf (a single inset) at end; pp.iv+[5]-292+[ii]; contemporary half natureal calf, spine ruled gilt and with black label, marbled sides; fore-edges mainly trimmed. Sides rubbed; title neatly laid down; a very little light marking and dusting; in general a nice copy.
Wolff, 7418. This earlier Dublin issue was unknown to Sadleir, who lists without comment a London ‘edition' dated 1831, which is apparently for the most part a re-issue of the same sheets: for the Sadleir copy, despite having a different title-page, collates identically with ours, except that four leaves, R4-6 and W5, have there been cancelled, and replaced by six leaves bearing a text evidently much expanded as well as revised. The trace of a cancel observed by Sadleir to precede the errata leaf is in the present copy likewise visible. Written for the most part in 1827, the work is a Catholic novel, attacking Biblicism, and rather defiantly dedicated to the Protestant Archbishop of Tuam.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Brambleton Hall, A Novel, Being a sequel to the celebrated Expedition Of Humphrey Clinker, By Tobias Smollet, M.D. Printed by and for T.H. Green, Kennington Cross; A.K. Newman and Co. Leadenhall Street; and Sher- Wood, Neely and Jones, Paternoster Row, 1818. 12mo; half-title not called for in this issue; hand-coloured engraved frontispiece after C. Williams (and bearing the imprint of Green), precedes cancel title leaf: both tipped on to stubs; pp.[ii (frontispiece)]+[iii-iv (title leaf)]+[v]-[xv] (Preface)+[xvi (blank)]+xvii-[xx] (prefatory letter in imitation of Smollet's original, offering the ms. for publication and explaining its supposed provenance, addressed like its model ‘To Mr. Henry Davis, Bookseller in London, and signed Jonathan Dustwich)+[1]-162; old quarter cloth, drab boards, spine ruled and lettered gilt; top- and fore- edges uncut, lower-edges rough trimmed. Title-page damp-stained; scattered very light damp-staining elsewhere; in general, nonetheless, a nice copy. Rare.
The frontispiece is on plate paper; the title-page on paper of an inferior quality to that used for the text; the type-styles of the title-page, however, match those of the text, which suggests that the whole volume was in fact printed by Green, as claimed. The volume collates: A10 (allowing for two stubs, the leaf following the title-leaf being signed A3, and the penultimate leaf A4); B-H12 (the first five leaves of each gathering being signed); I2: the first and last gatherings together making up, thereby, one full 12mo sheet. The recently acquired British Library copy, which is in the original drab boards, is identical with ours, except that the frontispiece is tipped (upside-down) onto the title-page, there being no stub. The title-page, as here, is on a stub, the stub being conjugate with leaf A6. The reason for the cancels is unclear, but the possibility occurs to us that the original may have had a half-title carrying advertisements on the verso (or perhaps just an advertisement leaf), together with a title leaf bearing the name of some other publisher(s), and that the present copy is made up from left-over - or, more likely, unpaid-for - sheets. We have never seen T.H. Green as the publisher of any other book, whilst A.K. Newman and Co. were essentially a reprint house who also bought remaindered fictive stock. On this hypothesis, there might not actually have been an earlier issue, though it is perhaps more probable there was. Block, p.25, records the title from only one auction copy, one bookseller's listing (possibly the same), and a notice in the New Monthly Magazine. He gives the imprint as we have it here. Not in Summers, Wolff, the London Library Catalogue, or, of course, Sadleir or Rothschild. Like its original, an epistolary novel. In the present copy, as in the British Library copy, the number to p.156 has been set on the blank line below the headline instead of in alignment with it.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The British log book Or Tales of the Ocean, Containing A collection of well-spun tough yarns, Biography of naval heroes, Tales of the ship - naval actions - galley yarns; Shipwrecks and disasters, Well suited to all classes From the quarter deck to the forecastle. Complete in one volume. Embellished with Numerous Engravings by Eminent Artists. G. Mansell, 115, Fleet Street, and all booksellers, N.D. c.1840]. Lge.post 8vo, signed and gathered in fours; half-title not present; pp.[ii]+1-176; old half roan, marbled sides over earlier embossed cloth. Covers worn, joints broken; title-page detached, stained, chipped at margins, and in need of laying down; otherwise in general nice.
Bound from the original twenty-two penny parts, each having a wood-engraved heading signed ‘Delamotte', and one large woodcut, signed, if at all, ‘J.Smeeton'. A rare example of the lowest class of adult production of its time, and unrecorded either by Block or Summers.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Charley Chalk; Or, The career of an artist: Being Sketches from Real Life; Comprising A narrative of his extraordinary adventures in Great Britain and Ireland, France and Greece. With illustrations by Jacob Parallel. London: G. Berger, Holywell Street, Strand; And may be had of all booksellers, N.D. [1839]. Demy 8vo; engraved frontispiece and vignette title-page precede letterpress title-page; half-title not called for; eighteen engraved plates; pp.[viii]+1-192+191-310; contemporary vertically fine ribbed arched-hexagon embossed maroon binder's cloth, leather spine label ruled and lettered gilt; brownish buff end-papers. Cloth slightly splitting at head of front joint; plates a little foxed; a very little light marking or fingering; but in general a nice copy. Scarce.
Stab-holes visible through most gatherings which do not align, together with variations in paper quality, suggest that this copy was issued in eight page numbers (almost certainly twenty in nineteen, the prelims. forming part of the last number). Sadleir, 79, records two later issues in book form, a collection copy in yellow pictorial boards printed in black and red, for which he hypothesises a binding date of 1842 or 1843, and another copy, not in his collection, in maroon diaper cloth blocked blind on sides, blocked and lettered gilt on spine, which he assumes to be earlier, and for which he suggests a date of 1840. According to the ‘English Catalogue of Books' the first book edition was published (at eleven shillings) in November 1841. In 1842 the sheets were re-issued, without the plates, as part of volume six of the ‘Romancist, and Novelist's Library, New Series'. The British Library Catalogue, somewhat oddly, gives [1839] for a listing of the book under Charley Chalk, and [1840] for a listing under Jacob Parallel - a confusion which may reflect the period of issue of the parts. Block, p.39, citing one bookseller's copy only; not in Summers or Wolff. The reduplicative numbering of pp.191-192, which does not reflect any overlap of text, occurs in all copies. The present copy, however, lists two Errata on the verso of the title leaf: these may have been corrected in the Sadleir copy, since he does not mention the presence of a list of Errata there. The author in his Preface, which appears to be a make-weight introduced to fill two vacant leaves, says that he is himself an artist, and that the book is based on his own experience. This suggests in turn that the author and his thoroughly competent illustrator may perhaps be the same - a thought suggested also by the choice of the name ‘parallel'. The plates, which are always carefully signed, are remarkably ‘Phiz'-like.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The family story-teller. Cherry-Blossom. By the author of "Madam's Ward," "Wedded Hands," "Cruel Kindred," &c. William Stevens, Limited, 421, Strand, N.D. [May 1892]. Sm.cr.8vo; last leaf printed with series advertisements on recto and serving as paste-down; pp.222+[i (advertisements)]+[i]; diagonally fine ribbed green cloth, ruled blind on back cover, ruled and blocked black, lettered black, gilt, and green through black, on front cover, ruled black on, lettered gilt up, spine; issued without true back end-papers. Inscription on front end-paper; otherwise a nice copy.
Issued simultaneously at 1s. ‘In Paper Covers' or ‘in Cloth, price 1s. 6d.' as volume [76] of ‘The Family Story-Teller' series. The correct first printing, and the first issue of the binding: the advertisement leaf listing the first seventy-five titles only, the title-page imprint having the word ‘Limited' in full not contracted form, and the back cover bearing blind rules. Not in Sadleir or Wolff. Halkett & Laing suggest that the author may have been Catherine March.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The family story-teller. Cherry-Blossom. By the author of "Madam's Ward," "Wedded Hands," "Cruel Kindred," &c. William Stevens, Ltd., 421, Strand, N.D. [May 1892]. Sm.cr.8vo; last leaf printed with series advertisements on recto and serving as paste-down; pp.222+[i (advertisements)]+[i]; diagonally fine ribbed green cloth, ruled and blocked black, lettered black, gilt, and green through black, on front cover, ruled black on, lettered gilt up, spine; issued without true back end-papers. A nice copy.
Issued simultaneously at 1s. ‘In Paper Covers' or ‘in Cloth, price 1s. 6d.' as volume [76] of ‘The Family Story-Teller' series. A later issue, the advertisement leaf listing 106 titles whereas in the first issue it lists the first seventy-five titles only. The present issue exhibits minor differences of title=page and binding also: the title=page imprint here reading ‘Ltd.' instead of ‘Limited' in full, as in the first issue, and the back cover here being without the blind rules present in that. Not in Sadleir or Wolff. Halkett & Laing suggest that the author may have been Catherine March.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Commercial tales and Sketches. Published at the Leisure House Office: 56, Paternoster Row, and 164, Piccadilly. Sold at all railway stations and by the booksellers. N.D. [c.1855]. Imp.16mo; half-title not called for; wood-engraved frontispiece and five plates, all integral and included in the pagination; pp.288; rose-madder pebble grain cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, lettered and blocked gilt, lettered rose-madder through gilt, on front cover, ruled and blocked gilt, lettered rose-madder through gilt on spine; end-papers coated yellow. Cloth patchily faded, and with neat restorations at extreme head and tail of spine; slight wear to corners; otherwise a nice copy.
Not in Sadleir, Wolff, Halkett & Laing, or the British or London Library Catalogues. There is no list of illustrations, but they appear as pp.51, 67, 173, 198, and 255. Stories of an improving tendency, somewhat methodistical in flavour, inculcating the commercial virtues. The volume was re-issued in 1864 by The Religious Tract Society, but this is apparently the original edition.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Early recollections: A Tale. Dedicated to Christian parents. Edinburgh: Published by William Oliphant, 22, South Bridge Street; And sold by M. Ogle, and Chalmers & Collins, Glasgow - J. Finlay, Newcastle - Beilby & Knotts, Birmingham - Hamilton, Adams, & Co., J. Nisbet, J. Duncan, F. Westley, And B.J. Holdsworth, London - and R.M. Tims and W. Cur-Ry, Jun. & Co. Dublin, 1825. 18mo in sixes; frontispiece drawn and engraved on steel by C. Thomson, Edinburgh; 2pp. publisher's advertisements at end, probably integral; pp.304+[ii]; light buff boards printed black on sides and spine, the back cover bearing publisher's advertisements; a.e. uncut. Backstrip badly chipped at head and tail, and sides dusty; internally fine. Rare.
Printed by J. Pillans & Son, presumably in Edinburgh. Published at 3s. 6d. Gatherings G, H, I, Y, Z, and Aa are printed on antique toned paper, the rest on white. In size and appearance very like the early yellowbacks of the 1840s, and a good example of the kind of volume that may have suggested them. Not in Sadleir or Wolff.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Edwin and Lucy; Or, The happy orphans: An Authentic History Containing The uncommon events and surprising turns Of fortune Incident to Persons in high life. Of moral tendency. Translated and improved from the French original. Manchester: Printed and published by J. Gleave, Deansgate, 1820. Lge.12mo, signed in fours and twelves; half-title not called for; engraved frontispiece and vignette title, drawn and engraved by Pigot, precede letterpress title; two engraved plates, also by Pigot; pp.284+[iv]; contemporary half-calf, marbled boards, spines ruled gilt and with red label. Slight chipping of calf, and covers a little worn at edges; tear in inner margin of frontispiece, not touching printed area, repaired on verso with tissue; two other short marginal tears in prelims., and tear in one other leaf, without loss; a little scattered light dusting and marking; but in general a nice copy. Very rare.
Not in Block, Summers, or the London Library Catalogue; the British Library Catalogue lists only a Halifax reprint dated 1878; NUC has one listing only for this edition (the Library Company of Philadelphia), and none for the reprint. A tale involving abduction and attempted rape, set chiefly among the English upper classes in seventeenth century England and France. We somewhat doubt the existence of a French original. Well-written and readable, as such things go. Stab-holes visible in some gatherings, and the device of the double signatures, lead us to believe that the work was issued originally in twelve twenty-four-page numbers. The last four pages are taken up by a poem entitled ‘An ode. By Fenton.', this being added, evidently as a make-weight. The foot of the final page carries the list of plates.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The People's Pocket Story Books. Felicia; Or, A life-long feud; Also The sons of Schamyl. James Henderson, Red Lion House, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, N.D. [c.1883]. F'cap 16mo; half-title not called for; series advertisements on verso of title-page; fly-title to the second story; pp.104+88; yellow coated wrappers, cut flush, printed on front wrapper in red and black with illustration, series title, first title and subtitle, price etc., on back and inside wrappers with commercial advertisements in black. Wrappers showing very slight wear, and neatly strengthened by being laid down onto a sheet of thin white paper, through which the advertisements can be faintly seen; otherwise a nice copy. Scarce.
Issued, according to the advertisements, as volume 192 of the series. Since the advertisements list titles up to volume 224, this is presumably a later printing. Published ‘Price Three Pence'. Almost a miniature book, four and seven eighths by three and one eighth inches, set in diamond type, forty lines to the page, excluding headlines, with an average of ten words per line, and rather messily printed on greyish paper, it is not the most readable volume we have seen. The typesetting and proof-reading, however, are remarkable: the only erratum noted by us in this copy is at l.27 on p.53, where the word ‘I' is lacking before ‘ran'. Not in Sadleir or Wolff. A rare series of which the British Library Catalogue records in all forty-seven volumes (not including ‘Felicia'), issued, according to the back wrapper of the first volume, ‘monthly, or at shorter intervals'. The first volume is dated 1867, and was issued with the imprint ‘James Henderson, Weekly Budget Office, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street', this imprint being continued until some time in 1872, when it was altered to read ‘James Henderson, Red Lion House, Red Lion-court, Fleet-street, E.C.'. At a later date still the ‘E.C.' and the hyphens being dropped, the imprint became that as given on the present volume. The series was continued for a considerable time, at the same price, and seems to have been superseded after about 1900 by Henderson's ‘Favourite Series', which was also issued at 3d. One of the more remarkable popular publishing ventures of the nineteenth century - each volume containing as much as a full-length novel - but necessarily ephemeral in nature, and now largely forgotten.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Female friendship; A Tale for Sundays. By the Author of the "School for Sisters." J. Harris and Son, St. Paul's Church-yard, 1824. 12mo in half sheets; engraved frontispiece; half-title not called for; pp.iv+212; original claret full roan, tooled blind on sides and spine, lettered gilt on front cover, ruled and lettered gilt on spine. Roan a trifle rubbed at edges, and slightly chipped at extreme head of spine; front end-paper lacking; light stain on corner of frontispiece; some light dusting and fingering; over all near nice.
Not in Block, Halkett & Laing, or the British or London Library Catalogues.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The flaw in the marble. Hutchinson & Co., N.D. [1896]. Frontispiece with tissue guard, six plates, and numerous initials and illustrations in the text, all by Leonard Linsdell; half-title, title-page, and cover designs by G.H. Edwards; half-title and title printed on glazed paper in black and pink; narrow 8vo; vertically fine-ribbed dark blue cloth, blocked and lettered gilt on front cover, lettered gilt on spine, in series style; a.e. uncut. Nice copy.
The second volume in Hutchinson's ‘Leisure Library of Complete Illustrated Novels'. Neither this title nor the series listed in Sadleir; not in Wolff.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The guards. A novel. In three volumes. London: T. Clerc Smith, St. James's Street, 1827. 3 Vols., lge.12mo; cherry red half sheep, tooled blind on sides, spine rules and tooled gilt, with guards' helmet and sabre design in compartments, black label, ribbon-embossed green cloth sides, cerise marbled end-papers, binder's ticket of J. Falconer, Dublin. Sheep insignificantly peeled on corners, and with slight wear at lower corner of one spine; bound up without the half-titles and advertisements, or the final blank called for by Wolff in volume one; a little very light marking of some margins passim; otherwise a nice copy, very pleasantly bound.
Not in Sadleir; Wolff, 7478; Block, p.93; two copies only located in NUC (Yale and Chapel Hill). A scarce roman á clef. The large margins of the present copy bear occasional light contemporary ms. notes identifying the originals of the characters (Mr. Crackpurse = Mr. Crockford; Lord Glenmuck = Lord Glengall; Hugh Bull = Hughes Ball; Dick Donkeylove = Dick Martin; Lord Horseman = Lord Westmorland; George Classic = George Canning; Duchess of Belpass = Duchess of Bedford; Duke of St. Ives = Duke of St. albans; Mrs. Banco = Mrs. Coutts; etc.).
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Hanworth. Originally published in Fraser's Magazine. John W. Parker and Son, West Strand, 1858. Post 8vo; fine steel engraved frontispiece by F. Bacon after H. Richter; pp.[iv]+280; scarlet morocco cloth ruled and blocked blind on sides and spine, lettered gilt on spine (with title), blind on sides (with binder's imprint); t.e. uncut; end-papers coated pale yellow. Extremely fine copy.
Not in Sadleir, or Halkett & Laing; Wolff, 7479, recording a copy in magenta horizontal ripple-grain cloth ‘blocked in blind on front, back, and spine; lettered gold on spine'. The Wolff copy had a prize label dated ‘Christmas 1863'; the present copy a small neat inscription on the front end-paper dated ‘8th May 1866'. Either, or neither, might be the primary binding. A point of interest not mentioned by Wolff (and which, of course, may not have applied to his copy) is that this is a rare example of a signed trade binding, the wide rule at the tail edge of the frame on the front cover bearing in relief the words: ‘T E SLATE BINDER' - the same being repeated upside-down at the top of the back cover. Carter, ‘Binding Variants', pp.43-44, in his discussion of binder's imprints, was able to quote only one similar example - and that dating almost from the start of cloth work, 1834. We have not otherwise encountered Slate as a cloth binder.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Heart-break; The Trials of literary life, Or Recollections of Christopher North. Wright and Co., Pall Mall. 1859. Lge.12mo; half-title not called for; pp.96; dark red straight grain morocco cloth, paper label on front cover, paper spine-label; t.e. uncut; end-papers coated lemon. Covers a little dull and marked; spine label rubbed and chipped at edges; unlettered corner chipped from front cover label; a very little light dusting internally, but in general a nice copy.
A rare ‘roman a clef' introducing recollections of ‘Christopher North' (i.e., Professor John Wilson). This copy bears on the front paste-down the book label of the Hon. E.A. Pelham, and on the front free end-paper the ink initials ‘M. A. Y.', together with the date 1859. Two brief ink notes in the same hand, written on p. 5, should enable a diligent researcher to identify all of the main characters.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The "golden mottoes" series. "He Conquers who Endures." By the author of "Mr. Burke's Nieces," "Poor Nelly," "May Cunningham's Trial," &c. &c. With original illustrations by H.J.A. Miles. Cassell & Company, Limited, 1886. Sm.cr.8vo, wire stitched; wood engraved frontispiece, with tissue guard, and three plates; 16pp. publisher's inserted advertisements at end, dated 5G.7.87 and 5B.7.87; scarlet smooth cloth, ruled black on back cover, green and black on front cover, green, black, and gilt on spine, blocked green, black, and gilt on front cover, black and gilt on spine, lettered gilt on front cover and spine; end-papers printed florally in grey, front end-paper printed on verso with series advertisements in black. Virtually fine copy.
Not in Sadleir or Wolff. Juvenile. he advertisements on the end-paper, coded ‘II', list six titles, ending with this one.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Helen Maurice; Or, The Daughter at Home. London: The Religious Tract Society; 56, Paternoster Row, 65, St Paul's Churchyard, and 164, Piccadilly: sold by the booksellers, N.D. [1863]. F'cap 8vo; half-title not called for; wood-engraved frontispiece and five plates, all inserted, but included in the pagination; 14pp. integral advertisements at end; pp.190+14; bright purple dotted diaper cloth, elaborately ruled, blocked, embossed, and embossed with lettering, blind on back cover, very elaborately ruled and blocked gilt, embossed, and embossed with lettering blind, on front cover, lettered, ruled, and elaborately blocked, gilt, on spine; a.e.g.; end-papers coated yellow; binder's ticket of ‘Lewis & Sons, / Gough Square / Fleet St. London' (Ball, 54A) on back paste-down. Contemporary inscription on front end-paper; otherwise a brilliantly fine, crisp, copy of a beautiful book.
The covers, designed in arabesque style, exhibit the full opulence of a ‘sixties table book, applied to a small f'cap 8vo volume - the result being a perfect gem! A rare title, not in NSTC or NUC.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Hidden fire. a Novel. In three volumes. London: Tinsley Brothers, 18, Catherine St., Strand, 1867. 3 Vols.; pp.vi+293+[i (blank)]; vi+298; vi+264; apple-green pansy-face grain cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, ruled, blocked, and lettered gilt on spine; top- and fore- edges uncut, lower-edges rough-trimmed; end-papers coated cream. Restorations to cloth at head and tail of spines, but a very good copy.
Erased from the front end-paper of volume one, but still faintly visible, is the pencilled name and address: "Mrs. Brough / 31, [?]Chivalry Road / Wandsworth Common / S.W." The front end-paper of each volume bears the ink signature ‘L. Brough' - very possibly the actor Lionel. The Broughs were close friends of the Tinsleys. Set among Chartists and Methodists in the coal and iron districts of South Wales c.1840. Not in Sadleir or Wolff.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The family story-teller. The History of an opal ring. William Stevens, Ltd., 421, Strand, W.C., N.D. [1879]. Sm.cr.8vo; diagonally fine ribbed blue-green cloth, ruled and blocked black, lettered gilt, black, and green through black, on front cover, lettered up, gilt, ruled, black, on spine; back paste-down printed with series advertisements. Faint ring-mark on front cover; large fox-spot on fore-edges; otherwise a very nice copy.
Issued as volume 8 of ‘The Family Story-Teller' series. A later binding up, the end-paper advertisements listing the series to number 79.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The impressions Of Auriole. Chatto & Windus, 1895. Blank before half-title; 4pp. integral advertisements followed by imprint leaf at end; vertically-fine-ribbed moire light metallic-blue cloth blocked in copper on front cover, blocked copper and lettered gilt on spine; uncut edges. Three small faded spots on back cover; spine slightly faded; otherwise a nice copy.
Wolff, 7493
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The King of diamonds. Sequel to "Gentleman George." Beautifully Illustrated. Hogarth House, 32, Bouverie Street, London, E.C., N.D. [c.1877]. Super roy.8vo gathered in sixes, wire-stabbed; half-title not called for; title leaf, Index leaf, and illustrated title leaf (not included in pagination), bearing an extended title: ‘King of diamonds: Or, The Adventures of the Pack in France. A sequel to "Gentleman George." London: Hogarth House, 32, Bouverie Street, Fleet St., E.C., precede start of text; eleven full page wood-engraved illustrations on text-paper, arranged as plates, and not included in the pagination; pp.[vi]+116; white wrappers, cut flush, printed on front wrapper in orange, yellow and black, on inside and back wrappers with publisher's advertisements in black; issued without end-papers. Rebacked with red cloth; wrappers with three small chips at edges, not affecting printed area; printed on paper of variable quality, with some gatherings embrowned; short tear in one fore-margin, not affecting text; otherwise a nice copy. Scarce.
Issued originally in twelve numbers at one penny each, the first leaf of each number bearing an illustration on the recto, the main title and the Index leaves being issued as part of the last gathering, and the illustrated title-leaf serving as the illustration leaf to the first number. The present collected issue of the numbers was put up in thick paper wrappers at One Shilling. We would deduce from the collation of this volume that the numbers may have had text-paper wrappers intended to be discarded by the binder. Some inner margins bear advertisements for other works. ‘Gentleman George' was written under the pseudonym J.J.G. Bradley by James Borlase, and commenced serialisation in the ‘Boy's Standard' on November 6th 1875. It is possible, but by no means certain, that this sequel was from the same hand. Summers, p.380; not in Wolff.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. A king's ransom. By the author of "The martyrs of the Cornhill." Ipswich: Pawsey and Hayes, The Ancient House; London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Stationers' Hall Court. Copyright. N.D. [1888]. Post 8vo; half-title not called for; wood-engraved frontispiece (of the Ancient House), with tissue guard; 4pp. tipped-in publisher's advertisements on text-paper at end; pp.[viii]+207+[i (woodcut device)]+[iv]; bevelled diagonally fine-ribbed reddish cerise cloth, ruled and blocked blind on back cover, ruled blind and gilt, blocked gilt, on front cover, ruled, blocked, and lettered gilt on spine; end-papers coated pale yellow. Small mark on front cover; otherwise a very nice copy.
A scarce provincially printed novel, published by the proprietors of ‘The Ipswich Public Library, established 1791'. Not in Sadleir, Wolff, or Halkett & Laing.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The Ladye Shakerley. Being the record of the life of a Good and noble woman. A Cheshire story. By one of the house of Egerton. Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, 13 Great Marlborough Street, 1871. Sm.cr.8vo; pp.[iv]+315+[i (blank)]; bevelled dull brown sand-grain cloth ruled black on sides and spine, blocked and lettered gilt on front cover and spine; top- and fore- edges uncut, lower-edges rough trimmed; end-papers coated black. Neat inscription dated ‘May 1871' on half-title; prelims. and last two leaves foxed; otherwise a nice copy.
Not in Sadleir or Wolff.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Leaves from the Journal of a Poor Vicar. And Other Tales. T. Nelson and Sons, 1855. Frontispiece and four plates, by various artists, all with tissue guards; f'cap 8vo; ripple-grain royal blue cloth, blindstamped on the sides, lettered and blocked on the spine in gilt. Covers dull and a little rubbed, label removed from front end-paper, leaving a hole; otherwise in general a nice copy. Scarce.
The title story is reprinted from the British Magazine of 1766, and here makes its first appearance in book form. The anonymous editor of this volume hypothesises a connection between this story of a Wiltshire Vicar and Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield", published six years later.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Legends of London And Chronicles of the olden times. Comprising Original tales and legends Relative to the ancient history of London; Definition and account of Remarkable places and persons, Connected therewith, and a variety of Historical and interesting facts. Illustrated by Twelve Superior Engravings. James Pattie, 4, Brydges Street, 1839. Demy 8vo in half sheets; half-title not called for; twelve wood-engraved illustrations in text, signed ‘G.D.'; pp.[iv]+92. Disbound; a good deal of foxing or embrowning, chiefly of margins, and a little fingering and dusting; a very good copy, nonetheless, considering the nature of the work.
Issued in twelve one penny numbers, the title and Contents leaves being issued with the final number. A rare work, not in Block, Summers, or the British or London Library Catalogues.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The Life and times Of Dick Whittington: An Historical Romance. London: Hugh Cunningham, St. Martin's Place, Trafalgar Square; Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., Stationers' Hall Court; Bell & Bradfute, Edinburgh; John Cumming, Dublin; D. Campbell, Glasgow, 1841. Demy 8vo; half-title not called for; wood-engraved frontispiece and twenty-one plates, the frontispiece and later plates by William Read, the first twelve plates by T.H. Jones; pp.[x]+342; contemporary half polished calf, red label, oil-marbled sides. Sides a trifle rubbed; some slight dusting throughout, and a few leaves a with some marking or spotting of margins; plates foxed; a very good copy, nonetheless, of a rare title.
Issued in, apparently twenty-two, weekly Numbers, August to December, 1840, as is made clear by the author's Preface, the prelims. being issued with the final part. Not in Summers or Wolff; Block, p.140, recording the title from a single booksellers' listing only. One might speculate at length on the vicissitudes of the original illustrator, Jones, who appears to have been not without his problems. Was he ill, or alcoholic, or did he merely starve to death? The first four plates are signed, quite normally, ‘T.H. Jones fec.', but he was evidently short of work, and on the next five he enterprisingly adds his address as ‘15 Queen St. Cheapside'. After the ninth plate, he removed to less salubrious lodgings, which he chronicled on the next two plates as ‘No.2 Newington Terrace Southwark'. He still was not obtaining sufficient work, however, and it occurred to him that the new address might have been inadequate: on the tenth and eleventh plates he gives it, more precisely, as ‘No.2 Newington Terrace, Horsemonger Lane, Boro' - and after that he is replaced by Read!
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Life in a whaler; Or, Perils and adventures In the tropical seas. By Sailor Charley. Ward & Lock, 158 Fleet Street, N.D. [1860]. F'cap 8vo; pp.[203]-424 [sic!]; wood-engraved frontispiece and conjugate vignette title-page on thick paper, with tissue guard; three wood-engraved plates, by Edmund Evans; scarlet bead grain cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, blocked and lettered gilt on front cover and spine, lettered scarlet-through-gilt on spine; a.e.g.; yellow coated end-papers. Slight cracking of end-papers, but a very nice copy.
Despite the amazing pagination, the text begins with a drop heading (giving the title as ‘A Whaling Cruise'), and at ‘Chapter I.', and is evidently complete as issued. A ‘New Edition' appeared, so designated, in 1880, from the same publisher, and the present edition gains a listing in the British Library 1971-5 Catalogue Supplement; otherwise we have been able to trace no record of this title - though one might suspect a connection with ‘Life in a Whale Ship; or, The Sports and Adventures of a Leading Oarsman . . . Based upon the Cruise of an American Whale Ship in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, during the Years 1836-7-8', published in Boston in parts in 1841 (Wright, 1664, only two imperfect copies known), the descriptive title of which would pretty well fit this volume.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Little John And Will Scarlett; Or, The Outlaws of Sherwood Forest. By The forest ranger. H[enry]. Vickers, Strand, N.D. [c.1862]. Super roy.8vo in half sheets, two parts (forty numbers) bound together in one volume, old binder's cloth; half-title not called for; no prelims. issued to the second part; forty wood engraved illustrations on text-paper; pp.[ii]+218+99+[i (blank)]; pink wrappers to each number, printed in black. Crudely but strongly recased; bound up without the pink wrappers, except for the front wrapper to part two, which has been laid down on thicker paper and inserted before title-page; otherwise a nice copy.
Issued in 40 weekly numbers, the numbering of the two parts running consecutively, and the title leaf being issued with the final number. Advertisements for ‘The London Herald' printed vertically in some inner margins establish limiting dates for the appearance of these parts as 31st August, 1861, and 15th December, 1866, ‘The London Herald' having existed only during that period. A rare work of which we can find almost no record. It is at least not in Block, Summers, Wolff, or the British or London Library Catalogues. NUC provides one listing (Cleveland Public Library) of an edition, also in 40 nos., published by E. Harrison, for which it gives the date, somewhat speculatively, as ‘[1870?]'. 1870 sounds rather late for Harrison, but may not be incorrect. Harrisons, however, were essentially a reprint house: Vickers (if one discounts reprints from periodicals) were not. It would seem likely that whatever the correct date for the Harrison edition may have been, the Vickers one will have been the earlier.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Little Mary Grown older. Published by R.B. Seeley and W. Burnside: And sold by L.B. Seeley and Sons, 169 Fleet Street, 1832. 12mo, printed in half sheets; pp.8+136; (?)half-title lacking; green fine linen, printed in black, on front cover with title and price within decorative typographical border, on back cover with advertisement; a.e. uncut. Bookseller's stamp on back pastedown; back end-papers foxed; otherwise a nice copy of a delicate book.
Issued as the sequel to ‘Little Mary; or God in everything', published in 1830. Not in the British Library Catalogue. Block, p.142 records the earlier volume, but not the present one. Osborne, p.763, records only the second edition of 1835. This second edition is identical in pagination with the present copy, but has a wood-engraved frontispiece (?on text-paper), and it may be this, rather than a half-title, that is lacking here. The authoress appears to have been Scots.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The log Of My leisure hours. By an old sailor. Second Edition. Sampson Low, Marston, Low, & Searle, 1872. Sm.f'cap 8vo; wood-engraved frontispiece; integral advertisement leaf followed by 32pp. publisher's inserted catalogue at end dated October, 1871; pp.viii+309+[i (blank)]+[ii]; yellow boards, printed on front cover in green, black, and red, in black on back cover, in red and black up spine. Very slight general wear to covers; unobtrusive inscription on back of frontispiece; ink scribble on back end-paper; otherwise a fine copy.
First published in three volumes in 1868. The present edition is marked 2/- on the spine. A revised edition, with a new Preface, was issued in October 1871, in cloth, and priced at 6/-. It was presumably dated a year ahead, as was customary at that time with books issued during the Autumn or Winter seasons. If the title-page is to be trusted, this must be the second issue of the revised edition. ‘An Old Sailor' is usually reckoned to be M.H. Barker. He died in 1846, however, and was evidently not the author here. The Prefaces to both the first and second editions are dated from Heathercliff, Barham, in the respective years of issue. Not in Halkett & Laing; Sadleir; or Wolff.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. London pilgrims. In three volumes. Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, Successors to Henry Colburn, 13, Great Marlborough Street, 1865. 3 Vols.; integral leaf headed ‘New works Published by Messrs. Hurst and Blackett', followed by publisher's inserted 16pp. catalogue (including an announcement of this work without reviews), at end of volume three; royal blue sand grain cloth, ruled blind on sides, ruled, blocked, and lettered gilt on spine; t.e. uncut, fore-edges rough trimmed; end-papers coated pale cream. Corners worn, and cloth of spines neatly restored; some foxing and dusting, passim, and one or two short marginal tears; a very good reading copy only.
Not in Sadleir or Wolff. A well-written book, evidently by a woman, with an interesting style making effective use of very feminine sentences, often not logical in grammatical structure, but excellently contrived to express the movements of the narrator's emotions and thoughts, as: "A plank crosses the stream just where it finds egress from the pond; ah, well, I won't cross it to-day, for I think I have rambled far enough, I am now within about two yards of the water, and the bank being nearly perpendicular I can lean forward, holding on to a tree, and look down on its glassy surface, and into its clear cold depths. Look! a black subaqueous forest is there, just stirring, and no more, as the current moves steadily towards the flood-gate. The water is so very cold and clear and silent, that as I turn from it I shudder involuntarily, as I prepare to reascend the hill - wait, there is a pink daphne in bloom I declare yonder, one spray of it for my nosegay I must have. I slip once or twice in endeavouring to reach the bright sweet blossoms, and so come nearer to the edge of the pond, but not much - until a branch of some tree whose sap rises late broke in my hand, and I had a little difficulty to save myself then from falling and at least wetting my feet. I was so absorbed now in picking my way over tree-stumps and stones, that I had not heard any one in the wood, and started considerably to hear a voice," etc., which is arguably the earliest recorded use of ‘stream-of-consciousness' technique (Vol.III, pp.153-4). In this copy the following errors have been noted: volume two, p.7, l.16, ‘seem' for ‘seemed'; p.139, l.4, ‘closed' for ‘close'; p.141, l.16, ‘grining' for ‘grinning'; volume three, p.80, l.13, ‘touch' for ‘touched'; p.98, penultimate line, ‘wrankled' for ‘rankled'; p.278, l.15, ‘be' lacking after ‘will'.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. The Loves Of An Apothecary. Clarke, Beeton, and Co., [148,] Fleet Street, 1854 [i.e., December, 1853]. F'cap 8vo; pp.vi+[9]-198; publisher's inserted 24pp. Catalogue at end dated December, 1853; vertical straight grain morocco scarlet cloth, ruled and blocked blind on sides, blocked and lettered gilt on front cover and spine; a.e.g. Re-backed with remains of backstrip laid on; end-papers anciently renewed; a little scattered light dusting and foxing; an acceptable copy, nonetheless, of a scarce title.
Not in Sadleir or Wolff. From the library of Anne and F.G. Renier, and bearing their small book label on the front paste-down. An unusually designed volume, the half-title and title leaves being set entirely in Old English type. The Catalogue concludes with a list of books published by Howell's [?of Liverpool] and Kings' (of Aberdeen) for whom Clarke, Beeton were presumably agents. According to the Catalogue the present volume was issued in boards at 1/6d. or in cloth, gilt edges, as here, at 2/6d. The curious pagination is apparently correct, the title leaf being a single inset on slightly thicker stock.
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ROBERT TEMPLE BOOKSELLERS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ARCHIVE, File C: Nineteenth Century General Fiction. All books first editions and first printings, except as stated.
ANONYMOUS. Lucy and Christian Wainwright, And other tales. By the Author of "Aggesden Vicarage," "The Wynnes," and "Mildred's Last Night." Joseph Masters, Aldersgate Street, And New Bond Street, 1863. F'cap 8vo; half-title not present, probably not called for; pp.[vi]+316; half dark green morocco faced roan, dark green morocco cloth sides, spine tooled blind and gilt, lettered gilt, sprinkled edges; original terra-cotta coated front end-paper bound in. Nice copy.
Not in Sadleir, Wolff, Halkett & Laing, the British or London Library atalogues, or NUC. From the library of Anne and F.G. Renier, and bearing their small book-label on the front paste-down. The preservation of the front end-paper in this copy - and the fact that it is in fine condition - argue that the binder is unlikely to have discarded a half-title. The last gathering consists of six leaves: we believe that the title and Contents leaves were printed conjugate as part of the last gathering, and that the dedication leaf (which bears the acknowledgements on verso) was added, possibly by an afterthought, as a single inset leaf. The acknowledgements record that five of the seven stories are reprinted from "The Monthly Packet", the other two being reprinted from "Sharpe's Magazine" and "Once a Week".
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