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In three volumes. [2], vii, [1], 259, [1]; [4], 257, [1]; [4], 250pp. With half-title. Contemporary gilt-tooled half-calf, marbled boards, contrasting red morocco lettering-pieces. Lightly rubbed. Armorial bookplates with initials 'G.F.B.' and motto 'Deo adjuvante non timendum' to FEPs, very occasional shaving to margins of Vol. II, scattered spotting. The first edition of Dublin-born author James White's (1759-1799) second published historical novel. Remembered chiefly as an ardent abolitionist, primarily due to his spirited and incendiary pamphlet Hints for a specific plan for an abolition of the slave trade and for the relief of the negroes in the British West Indies (1788), White's three novels all demonstrate his penchant for satire, keen interest in contemporary political issues, and lifelong commitment to public affairs. His books often strike a waggish tone, parodying the Walpolian and Radcliffean prototypes from which they borrow extensively. They failed however to strike a chord with the public, despite leaning heavily on Gothic tropes so fashionable with late eighteenth century readers. Their plots are replete with garrulous ghosts and chilling castles; indeed The adventures of John of Gaunt opens with the author, in echo of Cervantes, discovering the mythical manuscript record of the protagonists journey: 'Wandering one sultry day, in the year 1737, (being then but youthful) amidst the ruins of an ancient castle, well known to have been a residence of Geoffrey Chaucer, I chanced to hit my elbow against a wall in one of the chambers; the wall returned a hollow sound.By degrees I peeled off so much of the plaister, that I could easily perceive that the cavity within had been, in old times, a cupboard of the Chaucer family. On a decayed shelf, amidst the relicks of some Gothic earthen-ware, lay a roll of vellum.I found upon examination, that sundry adventures of the great duke of Lancaster and Edward the Black Prince were therein related in a Latin tongue. Some mouse had eaten many portions of the preface, and a few leaves of the history itself.Nevertheless from the injured fragments I made shift the discover that these memoirs had been compiled by friar Hildebrand, a Cistercian, at the desire, and under the auspices of Geoffrey Chaucer'. The Monthly Review (August 1790, pp. 416-21) received the novel favourably, noting that 'The adventures are all in the style of heroic errantry, and consist of tilting, suffering from cruel beauties, succouring distressed damsels, punishing lawless caitiffs, and other events, of course, in the records of chivalry'. ESTC records copies at four locations in the British Isles (BL, Cambridge, Sheffield, and Trinity College), and a further seven in North America (California, Harvard, LCP, NYPL, Pennsylvania, Toronto, and Wayne State). ESTC records copies at four locations in the British Isles (BL, Cambridge, Sheffield, and Trinity College), and a further seven in North America (California, Harvard, LCP, NYPL, Pennsylvania, Toronto, and Wayne State). ESTC N4252. Size: 12mo. Seller Inventory # AQ25729
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