Fairy Fingers. A Novel.

Published by New York: Carleton, 1865.

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Seller: Michael R. Thompson Books, A.B.A.A., Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.Michael R. Thompson Books, A.B.A.A.

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Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie (1819-1870) was an American playwright and novelist born in France. Though she began writing poetry and novels in 1841 to make a living after her husband lost his fortune, her first significant commercial success came in 1845 with her extremely popular play Fashion. Mowatt then made her theatrical debut and was one of America’s most popular actresses for almost a decade. Because Mowatt was well-respected and of high social standing, her popularity as a playwright and actress helped shift public attitudes toward theater. In Woman’s Fiction, Nina Baym writes that Mowatt “is said to have…made attendance at the theater respectable,” (Baym, p. 249). Her other novels include Mimic Life (1856) and Twin Roses (1857). Most of Mowatt’s stories end with the self-sacrificial deaths of her heroines; Baym argues that Mowatt’s tendency toward tragedy diverged from the contemporary conventions of fiction by and about women “because woman’s fiction was designed to show its readers how to live, not how to die” (Baym, p. 250). Her novels garnered praise from such contemporaries as Hawthorne and Poe. She was a founding member of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, the US’s oldest preservation organization. Twelvemo. 460 pp. + [8 publisher’s ads, including publisher’s colophon & epigraph]. Publisher’s brown cloth. Boards blind-bordered, with publisher’s device. Title gilt-stamped on spine. Fading and shelfwear to spine, with cracked cloth at head and foot. Bent tips. Light blue endpapers. Dedication to previous owner on front free endpaper. Moderate foxing throughout. Strong binding. A very good copy. First edition. OCLC lists 38 copies, all on the East Coast. Erroneously described elsewhere as a novel concerning an intrepid young piano player, or the supernatural, Fairy Fingers details the fate of one Madeleine de Gramont. Orphaned at eighteen, she finds herself suddenly living under the watchful eye of her wealthy aunt, the Countess de Gramont, who, in accepting Madeleine as ward, may have been motived “less by a charitable impulse than by pride which would not allow it to be said that her grandniece ever lacked, or had to solicit a home.” Now an “inmate” at Châteu de Gramont, Madeleine (whose latent skill for dress-making gives the novel its title) develops a forbidden attraction to her cousin, Maurice, arranged as he is to marry the Countess’s daughter, Bertha. Baym, Woman’s Fiction, pp. 249-250; The Feminist’s Companion to Literature in English, p. 769-770.

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Bibliographic details

Title
Fairy Fingers. A Novel.
Author
[[ Mowatt] Ritchie, Anna Cora.
Publisher
New York: Carleton, 1865.
Binding
Hardcover
Edition
1st Edition

Michael R. Thompson Books, A.B.A.A.

Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.

1-star seller

AbeBooks seller since July 3, 1996

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Our office is located in Los Angeles on West Third Street, between the Beverly Center and Farmer's Market. Though we gave up an open shop after more than thirty years, we welcome serious customers and dealers. We are normally open from 10 to 6 Monday through Saturday. Since some of our less expensive books are located in a temperature-controlled storage area offsite, you may want to call ahead of time to insure that the book you want to see will be available. We feature a stock strong in literature, history, Western philosophy, history of science, history of computers, and art. We are members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. We have books from the 15th to the 20th century in all prices ranges. We do appraisals for income tax and insurance purposes. We purchase individual books and libraries. Proprietors: Michael R. Thompson, Kathleen D. Thompson, Carol Sandberg

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History of Science, History of Computers, Western Philosophy, General Antiquarian, Literature, Fine Printing, Illustrated Books, Scholarly Books

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Michael R. Thompson Rare Books

Michael Thompson Books, ABAA/ILAB, 8242 West Third Street, Suite 230
Los Angeles, CA U.S.A. 90048