1795, ISBN: 847926205f9d358ad62df358e2756442

Hardcover

[PU: Printed for H. and P. Rice, Philadelphia], GOTHIC; MYSTERY & CRIME, 12mo, two volumes: pp. [1-2] [1] 2-228; [1-5] 6-224, both half-title leaves present, recently rebound to style in … More...

[PU: Printed for H. and P. Rice, Philadelphia], GOTHIC; MYSTERY & CRIME, 12mo, two volumes: pp. [1-2] [1] 2-228; [1-5] 6-224, both half-title leaves present, recently rebound to style in full leather, spine panels tooled in gold, brown leather spine title pieces. First U.S. edition. A landmark early novel that stands at the intersection of several genres. It is the first detective novel, chronicling the dogged investigative efforts (and consequent suffering) of an employee of an aristocratic English murderer. It is a Gothic, and probably the first one to transplant the essential mood of Gothicism (bondage, oppression, imprisonment) to contemporary events that are stripped of the usual outer accouterments of the genre. It is a novel of ideas, not surprisingly, given the stature of its author, a leading radical theorist of the day, husband of the "first feminist" Mary Wollstonecraft, friend of Percy Shelley, father of Mary Shelley. It is moreover a rousing adventure novel, a story of pursuits and escapes. It has also been called the first psychological novel, revealing its author's "fascination by the entanglement of human motives." (McCracken, Introduction to Norton edition, p. vii). An early critic, William Hazlitt, proclaimed, ". no one ever began CALEB WILLIAMS that did not read it through; no one that ever read it could possibly forget it, or speak of it after any length of time but with an impression as if the events and feelings had been personal to himself." (ibid.). One of the cornerstones of popular fiction. See Birkhead, "Godwin and the Rosicrucian Novel" in her The Tale of Terror, pp. 100-127. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 1-32. Block, The English Novel 1740-1850, p. 85. Clute and Grant (eds), The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, p. 416. Jones and Newman (eds), Horror: 100 Best Books, no. 4. Birkhead, The Tale of Terror, esp. pp. 86-93. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature, p. 38. Summers, A Gothic Bibliography, p. 532. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 1-128. Barzun and Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime 1002. Hubin (1994), p. 332. Rothschild 1017. Evans 28752. Shipton and Mooney 28752. Scattered foxing to text, chip from upper right margin of leaf C7 of volume 1, internally a very good copy. COPAC reports one copy (Trinity College, Dublin). OCLC reports 4 complete copies (AAS; Yale University; New York Public Library; University of Tennessee, Knoxville). Rare. (#136740)<

1795, ISBN: 847926205f9d358ad62df358e2756442

Hardcover

[SC: 34.73], [PU: for H. and P. Rice, Philadelphia], AMERICAN, First American edition. [2], 228; [3]-224 pp. Without half titles. 2 vols. 8vo. Godwin's First Novel. Godwin's scarce first … More...

[SC: 34.73], [PU: for H. and P. Rice, Philadelphia], AMERICAN, First American edition. [2], 228; [3]-224 pp. Without half titles. 2 vols. 8vo. Godwin's First Novel. Godwin's scarce first novel, written just after his ENQUIRY CONCERNING POLITICAL JUSTICE (1793), and "a near masterpiece, the finest work of fiction to appear in the long and prolific interval between the age of Richardson and the emergence of Jane Austen and Walter Scott." - St. Clair, THE GODWINS AND THE SHELLEYS. The book was designed to show "the tyranny and perfidiousness exercised by the powerful members of the community against those who are less privileged than themselves," was a great popular success in Godwin's day, and provided the plot of successful play version. It is also a very early example of the novel of detection, "the latter carried out by the secretary of the suspected man, himself a recluse. there is much psychology (some of it shrewd and anticipatory of a later day), considerable drama (including blackmail frame-up, low life, and trial scene)." - Barzun and Taylor The American edition was published a year after the London edition. Godwin's work exercised a profound influence upon a generation of writers, in particular American Charles Brockden Brown, whose first four novels "are dramatic, suspenseful tales of crisis and psychological derangement that successfully combine the conventions of British 'Jacobin' fiction (the progressive fiction associated with Godwin), and of Gothic, seduction, and picaresque, or adventure, novels with an emphasis on the period's deepest social and political anxieties" (ANB). Attractive copy of a scarce book. Evans 28752; ESTC W28047 Early half morocco and marbled boards. Small repair to head of spine. Very good [2], 228; [3]-224 pp. Without half titles. 2 vols. 8vo<

1795, ISBN: 847926205f9d358ad62df358e2756442

Hardcover

[SC: 35.39], [PU: for H. and P. Rice, Philadelphia], AMERICAN, First American edition. [2], 228; [3]-224 pp. Without half titles. 2 vols. 8vo. Godwin's First Novel. Godwin's scarce first … More...

[SC: 35.39], [PU: for H. and P. Rice, Philadelphia], AMERICAN, First American edition. [2], 228; [3]-224 pp. Without half titles. 2 vols. 8vo. Godwin's First Novel. Godwin's scarce first novel, written just after his ENQUIRY CONCERNING POLITICAL JUSTICE (1793), and "a near masterpiece, the finest work of fiction to appear in the long and prolific interval between the age of Richardson and the emergence of Jane Austen and Walter Scott." - St. Clair, THE GODWINS AND THE SHELLEYS. The book was designed to show "the tyranny and perfidiousness exercised by the powerful members of the community against those who are less privileged than themselves," was a great popular success in Godwin's day, and provided the plot of successful play version. It is also a very early example of the novel of detection, "the latter carried out by the secretary of the suspected man, himself a recluse. there is much psychology (some of it shrewd and anticipatory of a later day), considerable drama (including blackmail frame-up, low life, and trial scene)." - Barzun and Taylor The American edition was published a year after the London edition. Godwin's work exercised a profound influence upon a generation of writers, in particular American Charles Brockden Brown, whose first four novels "are dramatic, suspenseful tales of crisis and psychological derangement that successfully combine the conventions of British 'Jacobin' fiction (the progressive fiction associated with Godwin), and of Gothic, seduction, and picaresque, or adventure, novels with an emphasis on the period's deepest social and political anxieties" (ANB). Attractive copy of a scarce book. Evans 28752; ESTC W28047 Early half morocco and marbled boards. Small repair to head of spine. Very good [2], 228; [3]-224 pp. Without half titles. 2 vols. 8vo<