O'FARRELL (Burke). Proud as Lucifer. A Novel. In three volumes. Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly, 1877. 3 Vols.; half-titles not called for; pp.[iv]+293+[i (blank)]; [iv]+314; [iv]+312; brown patterned sand-grain cloth (volumes one and two), bubble-grain cloth (volume three), blocked blind on back cover, black on front cover, ruled and blocked black and gilt, lettered gilt, on spine; top- and fore-edges uncut; end-papers coated lemon-yellow. Slight general wear to covers, but a nice copy.

Well written and readable. Not in Sadleir; Wolff, 5204, describing the cloth as pebble-grain, which the variation in the present copy suggests that it may well have been in his set. He gives a different collation for volume one, however, recording it as [iv]+[296], which is almost certainly the result of a misreading on his part of ‘5' for ‘3' in the numbering of the last page of text. Wolff does not suggest that anything but leaves of text are present, and the text in our copy ends on the penultimate page with the words ‘END OF VOL.I.' In the present copy the following typographical faults have been noted, state or issue significance, if any, unknown: Vol.I, p.59, l.14, raised ‘c' at start of line; p.106, l.9, hypen dropped at end of line; p.199, l.19, dropped ‘f' at end of line; p.263, l.19, improper spacing between ‘o' and ‘n' at end of line; Vol.II, 2, page number lacking; p.165, l.8, broken ‘e' at end of line; p.236, l.18, raised comma at end of line; Vol.III, p.21, l.7, broken ‘n' in ‘in-'; p.22, l.4, broken ‘e' at end of line; p.109, l.9, ‘same' for ‘came'; p.132, l.21, type damage: ‘eit' for ‘left'; p.166, l.4, ‘drank' for ‘drunk'; p.258, l.15, first ‘b' lacking in ‘Babbington'; p.308, l.13, comma instead of full stop at end of line. Though the cloth grain in the present copy varies between volumes, it is of the same colour and they are not obviously non-uniform. The set was apparently so issued: it has never seen library use, and the same two neat ownership inscriptions appear on the front end-paper in each volume. A well written novel after the Hardy mould, barely missing the first rank, that has a good deal to say about the nature of man in society, and touches a broad conspectus of social themes to give an interesting and balanced picture - not without occasional gentle humour - of social conditions and questionings as they appeared then in every walk of life: ‘"So like a man!" remarked Miss Virginia scornfully: "the best of them prefer a beautiful face to the most intellectual conversation. Miss Babbington scarcely opened her mouth the whole of dinner-time, and afterwards when I questioned her as to her opinions on the momentous subject of women's rights - what do you think she said, looking lazily down at me with her eyes half closed? ‘Really, Miss Tollemache, I cannot tell you; I do not consider the subject worth the trouble of consideration.' ‘Not worth the trouble of consideration!' I exclaimed. ‘A woman's rights not worth the trouble of a woman's consideration! Do I hear aright?' ‘Perfectly,' she answered; ‘perhaps if I arrive at the age of - say forty - without having found a husband to please me, I may take up the subject; at present, I do not care a pin about other women's rights, and I flatter myself I am perfectly able to take care of my own.' Fancy any rational female human being giving you such an answer as that; and yet there sits Lord Lowndes, who has the reputation of being one of the most intellectual men of the day, apparently enjoying her society." (Vol.I, pp.228-9)

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