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Scarce pairing of Bellamy’s utopian novels First editions, first printings, of Bellamy’s enormously popular Looking Backward 2000–1887 and its sequel Equality ; the first issue of both, Looking Backward with the misprint “wore” in line 8 on page 210 and the J. J. Arakelyan slug on the copyright page, Equality with the first issue jacket and very rare thus. Looking Backward 2000–1887 established Bellamy’s utopian themes of co-operation and brotherhood in an ideal socialist system, where clothes are recycled, jewels are worthless, and world communication has been simplified into a universal language. The work had an immediate political effect and contributed to the formation of numerous clubs across America campaigning for nationalisation of services. Equality expanded on these themes and a number of issues it was only able to treat briefly. Equality asserts in detail that “the establishment of economic equality did in fact mean incomparably more for women than for men” (p. 131), allowing them access to traditionally male-dominated trades, and freedom from the confines of 19th-century fashion. 2 works, octavo. Looking Backward: Original green cloth, titles to rounded spine and front cover in black, decorative vignette to spine and front cover in gilt. Slight rubbing to board edges, spot of wear to tips, light foxing to endpapers; a near-fine copy. Equality : Original pink cloth-backed boards, titles and frames to spine and front board in gilt and brown. With dust jacket. Spine very lightly browned, tiny bumps to spine ends, two small marks to head of rear board, a few corners creased, tape repair to short closed tear at head of front free endpaper. A near-fine copy, the binding square and firm, occasional neat pencil annotations to margins, in the scarce, slightly soiled dust jacket, with minor loss to spine ends, not price-clipped. ¶ Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction , p. 35; L. T. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516–1985: An Annotated, Chronological Bibliography , Garland Publishing, 1988, p. 56. £2,250 [137673]
described by Venturi as “a desperate and extreme defence of the traditional world”. It certainly was the most radical rejection of Beccaria’s ideas (including those relating to capital punishment and torture). Sophus Reinert has shown that Facchinei’s views were complex. He did not wholly disagree with Beccaria, Verri and their enlightened circle – notably on the subject of luxury as a potential factor in the increase of welfare in society. But he did take issue with what he describes, in this work, as “socialist” views (first on p. 9 and again later): the call for a worldwide secular and democratic revolution in the persuasion that there could exist a perfect society generated from the consent of truly free men. Rousseau’s Social Contract was, Facchinei believed, the germ of such ‘socialism’: a belief he judged to be wholly unfounded, and disproved by factual historical records. What history teaches us, Facchinei observes, is that the rise and fall of powers has been determined by the law of force, prevailing “by such circumstances and combinations that one can discern in this process (judging justly) the work and contribution of an invisible, yet very powerful hand” (ibid.). It is rare on the market: Rare Book Hub finds a single instance at auction, in 1953. Octavo (196 × 136 mm). Uncut in original carta rustica. Wood-engraved head- and tailpieces. Minor chip to spine, some discolouration around the edges, light occasional spotting, still a very good copy. ¶ Melzi II, p. 239; not in Einaudi. Franco Venturi, Il Settecento riformatore , Einaudi, 1969, pp. 707ff. S. A. Reinert, The Academy of Fisticuffs: political economy and commercial society in Enlightenment Italy , Harvard University Press, 2018, passim. £4,000 [119102] 11 BELLAMY, Edward. Looking Backward 2000–1887. Boston: Ticknor and Company, 1888 ; [together with:] Equality. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1897
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Peter Harrington
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