James Cummins Bookseller

N.p. [London]: 1810.

Price: $5,000.00

About the item

Wove paper watermarked "J. Ruse 1804". 8vo. Blank account book bound in vellum, stamped in blind on spine "Williams's 65 [--[ Patent," textblock sewn onto metal tabs, which have since oxidized and deteriorated, staining and damaging the spine, covers bowed, text is clean, written in a clear, legible hand.

Item #302675

An unrecorded fair copy of an early draft of Irish author Eaton Stannard Barrett's best known poetic work, published in 1810, and then re-written almost entirely for a second edition published in 1818. "In 1810 Barrett published Woman and other Poems. Written in the manner of Pope, ‘Woman, a Poem’ was, according to Reiman in his 1979 edition of it, ‘more popular during Barrett's lifetime than any single work by a major or secondary poet then living, including Scott or Byron.’ The volume ran into several editions, being reprinted as late as 1841" (ODNB). Barrett is perhaps best remembered today for his mocking take-off of the Gothic novel, The Heroine (London, 1813).
A comparison between the present manuscript and the published first edition shows substantial differences and similarities. Barrett altered the overall structure of the poem by breaking what is here a continuous thread into four parts. The major textural differences: the published version has at least 52 more lines than the manuscript, and in addition there are 20 lines which have been substantially re-written. There are also a further (approx.) 340 words that have been changed. Conversely, the manuscript includes 12 lines that have been deleted from the published version.