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30 [BRONTË, Anne.] The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. London: T. C. Newby, 1848 3 volumes, octavo (196 × 116 mm). Late 19th-century green straight-grain morocco by Lloyd, Wallis & Lloyd, spines gilt-tooled in compartments with titles direct, French fillet border gilt to sides, gilt-tooled turn-ins, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, others untrimmed. Housed in a dark green leath- er entry slipcase by the Chelsea Bindery. Half-title to vol. 1 only, as called for. Bound without terminal advert leaf. Bookplates of George Evelyn Cower to pastedowns. Some corners bumped, a few minor marks to sides, internally clean, minor paper repairs done at the time of binding to a few small tears to some outer leaves, light mark to first title, but an excellent copy, smartly bound, retaining untrimmed fore and lower edges. first edition, scarce first issue, of Anne Brontë’s final and only separately published novel, which “‘reverberated throughout Victorian England’ with its realistic and disturbing portrayal of alcoholism and debauchery” (Leonardi, p. 314). Thomas Cautley Newby was a notoriously shifty publisher who had taken a depos- it for the earlier publication of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey but failed to publish until the reviews of Jane Eyre proved favourable, then printed fewer than the agreed number, leaving most errors uncorrected. His behaviour on this occasion was little better: he of- fered it to Harper Brothers of New York for publication in America, implying it was by Currer Bell; printed reviews of Jane Eyre on the half-title verso with the same intent; and published only about 250 or 300 copies, instead of the agreed 500, leaving the remainder to be sold, with a cancel title and preface, as the second edition. As a result, copies of the first issue are scarce. Michael Sadleir, whose collection of 19th-century literature remains unparalleled among private collections, never found an adequate copy for his collection. Smith (Brontë) 4; Sadleir, p. 375. Leonardi, Barbara (ed.), Intersections of Gender, Class, and Race in the Long Nineteenth Century and Beyond , Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. £27,500 [121127]
both arms . . . the consequences of her accident were more serious than she first thought” (Berry & Bostridge, p. 514). Reilly, p. 68. Berry, Paul, & Mark Bostridge, Vera Brittain: A Life , Virago, 2001. £5,000 [130434] 29 BRITTAIN, Vera. Testament of Youth. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1933 Octavo. Original orange cloth, title to spine black. With the dust jacket. Spine a little faded, faint traces of tape residue to free endpapers, in the jack- et with slightly toned spine panel, tiny chips to spine ends, a couple of tiny closed tears to head of panels with light tape repair to verso. An excellent copy in the unusually bright and remarkably well-preserved dust jacket. first edition, notably rare in the dust jacket, especially so in such nice unrestored condition—this is the first we have handled. Brittain’s wartime memoir was an instant best-seller. Published on 28 August 1933, the first impression of 5,000 copies was exhausted within a week. It went through six impressions before the end of the year, and “enjoyed similar success in America in October, where on its day of publication alone 11,000 copies were bought” (Berry & Bostridge, p. 264). Lengel notes that this was “one of the most important pieces of literature to emerge from the war”. Brittain had “succeeded in erecting a lasting memorial to four young men, Ro- land, Edward, Victor, and Geoffrey. She had exorcised the ‘brutal, poignant, and insistent memories’ of her youth. Furthermore, she had ensured that a female dimension to the war would never be forgotten” (Bostridge, p. 142). Lengel 414. Berry, Paul, & Mark Bostridge, Vera Brittain: A Life , Virago, 2001; Bo- stridge, Mark, Vera Brittain and the First World War: The Story of Testament of Youth , Bloomsbury, 2014. £5,000 [121385]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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