Her Best Novel
The Old Manor House. A Novel.
London: Printed for J. Bell, no. 148, Oxford-Street, 1793.
Price: $2,500.00
About the item
First Edition. In Four Volumes. Half titles in all volumes save vol. II., 1 page of ads at end of Vol. 4. No frontispiece is called for. Complete copy. [4], [1]-280; [2], [1]-320; [4], [1]-353; [4], [1]-363, [1, ads] pp. 4 vols. 12mo. Her Best Novel. Contemporary polished speckled calf with morocco title labels, with gilt stamped lion standing on crossed staves on each cover. Touch of rubbing, two joints a little tender, an attractive copy. Bookplate of Francis Longe, Spixworth Park, Norfolk in each Volume. Lowndes 2418; Garside, Raven and Schowerling: 1793:39.
Item #211556
Charlotte Smith (1749-1806), impecunious gentlewoman turned poet, translator, and novelist. She translated Manon Lescaut and the ‘Romance of Real Life,’ an English version of some of the most remarkable trials from ‘Les Causes Célèbres’. her first novel, Emmeline, or the Orphan of the Castle (1788) proved popular and gained the praise of Sir Walter Scott. The Old Manor House, “considered by Scott her best piece of work” (DNB), appeared in 1793.
