HARRINGTON, A TALE; AND ORMOND, A TALE
First edition of this strikingly modern novel, addressing anti-Semitism in upper-class London — by one of Jane Austen's favorite novelists.
Very good plus.
Price: $600.00
HARRINGTON, A TALE; AND ORMOND, A TALE
"It was in January, 1816, that Maria Edgeworth received a letter from Miss Rachel Mordecai, of Richmond, Virginia, gently reproaching her with having so often made Jews ridiculous in her writings, and asking her to give a story with a good Jew. This was the origin of 'Harrington,' and the commencement of a correspondence with Miss Mordecai, and of a friendship with her family." — Augustus Hare
Edgeworth was "easily the most celebrated and successful of practicing English novelists" (Butler, 1) of the early 19th century and one of Jane Austen's favorite authors. Even when Austen joked about disliking her "competitors" in novel writing, as she did when writing to a niece about their shared literary ambitions, she always made an exception for Edgeworth: "I have made up my mind to like no Novels really, but Miss Edgeworth's, Yours & my own. Jane Austen's, who looked to Edgeworth as a model of her own ambitions as a novelist and even sent her a presentation copy of EMMA. In NORTHANGER ABBEY, Austen even named Edgeworth's courtship novel, BELINDA, as a book "in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed."
HARRINGTON is among Edgeworth's most modern novels, featuring a troubled and self-aware protagonist reminiscent of those celebrated in the works of Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë. The novel is a clear antecedent to both those celebrated author's books, with the social reform storytelling of Dickens and the pensive romanticism of Brontë. An important novel of the Romantic era, setting the standard for the Victorian novel to come.
Read more: Butler, Maria Edgeworth; Hare, The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth.
The Object
London: Printed for R. Hunter [...] and Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1817. Three 12mo volumes, 7'' x 4'' each. Contemporary half red goatskin, marbled paper boards. Red speckled edges. [2], iv, 521, [1]; [2]; 422; [2], 352, pages. Mild edgewear, some rubbing to boards. Text with light foxing; a couple leaves in vol. III proud. Overall a splendid set.
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