Lewis Matthew Gregory Monk Translator (1 results)

Half titles, final ad. leaf vol. I, errata leaf & 4pp ads vol. IV. Neatly bound in near contemp. drab boards, tan calf spines, ruled & with devices in blind, dark blue leather labels; light rubbing. With monogram booklabels on leading pastedown in all four vols, & the armorial bookplate of Methyr Guest in vol. I, & on following pastedown in vols II-IV. Additionally, each vol. is blind-stamped (most unusually) directly on to the front & back board with an armorial device, bearing the legend 'Honi soit qui mal y pense' (the motto of the chivalric Order of the Garter). A lovely copy. Summers pp 96 & 324. Copac lists Copies at the BL & Cambridge only. A very nice copy in contemporary binding of Lewis's free translation of Madame de Naubert's celebrated gothic novel, first published in German in 1789 as Elisabeth, Erbin von Toggenburg, oder Geschichte der Frauen von Sargans in der Schweiz. Lewis's rendition was not well received; the Critical Review (July 1807), in particular, singling it out for opprobrium: 'ghosts, bones, chains, dungeons, castles, forests, murders, and rapine pass before us in long order, till sated with horrors and habituated to their view we regard them all with as much composure as an undertaker contemplates the last melancholy rites of his mortal brethren'. But the public evidently had not grown weary of 'ghosts, bones and murders', a third edition being announced in the summer of 1807. A particularly scarce title.