Agnes of Sorrento

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Published by Houghton Mifflin And Company, Boston And New York, 1890

About this Item

Stated Twenty-Ninth Edition. The copyright page says '1862 and 1890.' Judging from the list under 'Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe' on the page facing the title page, 1890 may indeed have been the year that this particular book was published. As you can see from the photos, the covers are in very nice condition. There is a little bit of a cloudy spot off the front top edge. The wear at the spine's top and bottom edges is minor. The gilt lettering on the spine is nicely bright. The cover edges are look very good with just one nick on the rear top one. The cover corners look very good with just a tiny spot of rubbing at two of them. The page edges look good. There is a thin sliver of a tan spot on the top one. The spine has a slight forward lean. The book is very solidly bound from cover to cover. The pages are nicely tight. The covers are nicely tight. I'm not finding any binding issues. The inside covers and first front end and last rear end papers are black. They look very good. The front end paper has a tiny crease at both its top and bottom corners. The pages are, overall, very clean. The thin tan spot on the top page edge did migrate to peek over the top edge of ten consecutive pages (twenty sides). Three or four of these pages also have one tan spot each a little further down below the top edge. Nothing touches the print on any of these pages. Otherwise, scrolling through, I didn't see more than 1/2 dozen or so minor spots over the entirety of the book. I certainly could have missed a few other inconspicuous ones. There is a light crease just below the top corner of the first 30 pages, very light and small. There's also a tiny circular nick below the top edge of page 9-10. I'm also seeing a handful of consecutive pages with a different very light crease below their top corner. That may be it for creasing. I don't see any placeholder creases or sharp creases. There are no markings in the book. There are no attachments of any kind. There is a penciled name on the blank second front end paper (looks like Emma O. Burnham). At the bottom of the same page there is a date (which appears to be lightly penned). The date is 'Dec. 11, 1896.' On the next page, the blank side of the 'Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe' page, there's a little zigzag pen mark which could be someone's initials. There is no other writing to be found anywhere else in the book. 'The scene is laid in central Italy during the time of the infamous Pope Alexander VI (from 1492 to 1503). Agnes is the daughter of a Roman prince who secretly marries, and then deserts her mother, a girl of humble parentage. The young mother dies of grief, and Elsie, the grandmother, takes Agnes to Sorrento, where she lives by selling oranges in the streets. Her beauty and her purity attract many lovers, worthy and unworthy, and involve her in many romantic and dramatic incidents.' Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe was an American author and abolitionist, whose novel Uncle Tom's Cabin attacked the cruelty of slavery. The book reached millions as a novel and a play, and became influential, even in Britain. It made the political issues of the 1850s regarding slavery tangible to millions, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North. It angered and embittered the South. The impact is summed up in a commonly quoted statement apocryphally attributed to Abraham Lincoln. When he met Stowe, it is claimed that he said, 'So you're the little woman that started this great war!'. Seller Inventory # 005012

Bibliographic Details

Title: Agnes of Sorrento

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin And Company, Boston And New York

Publication Date: 1890

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good