Nadine : The Study of a Woman

Praed, Mrs Campbell (née Rosa Caroline Murray-Prior, b. 1851 d. 1935)

Published by London Chapman & Hall, Limited 1882, 1882

About this Item

First edition. Two volumes, 199 and 208 pages respectively. Formerly the property of politician and artist, Sir William Morton Eden, with his bookplate to the front pastedowns of both volumes, his ownership inscription to the half-title page of volume I, indicating that he acquired the novel in January 1883, and his signature to the second blank in volume II. The books are firmly bound in contemporary hard-wearing green cloth, with gilt lettered leather spine labels, gilt top-edges to the text blocks and floral endpapers. The boards are slightly marked, bumped, rubbed and bowed. The text blocks are slightly toned, lightly foxed and marked, with some dog-eared corners, minor loss to a few carelessly opened page edges and the light pencil notes and sporadic annotations of a former owner. There is a printer's error to the whole of gathering H in the first volume, the text is complete but the pages are printed in entirely the wrong order. "She bewitched him to a greater degree, yet not quite in her former fashion. The fascination was more unwholesome; it excited him and yet deepened his melancholy". Possibly now best known for her novels set in Australia, at the time this proved to be Praed's most successful work to date, a novel of sensation, sensuality and the supernatural, written at great speed and with the prose retaining a breathless intensity. Rejected by her then publisher, Bentley, due to Nadine being "unwholesome" and "rotten to the core", it was quickly taken up by Chapman & Hall, who presumably recognised the public's appetite for unwholesome subjects. Rare in commerce and not all that plentifully represented in library holdings, this copy with some interesting provenance. Seller Inventory # 6684

Bibliographic Details

Title: Nadine : The Study of a Woman

Publisher: London Chapman & Hall, Limited 1882

Publication Date: 1882

Edition: 1st Edition