Property from an Important American Collection
Eliot, GeorgeScenes of Clerical Life. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1858
2 volumes, 8vo. Half-titles. Publisher's maroon cloth by Edmonds & Remnant, covers decorated in blind, spines gilt, brown endpapers; spines lightly sunned, signs of careful restoration work to joints and extremities, especially to the spine of volume II and the upper cover. Collector's brown quarter calf slipcase with folding chemises.
First edition of Eliot's first novel — the very fine Eckel-Zimbalist-Parsons-Slater-Manney copy.
This is the first appearance of Mary Ann Evan's pen name, George Eliot. She took this up for her foray into novel writing, and continued to use this throughout her career, firstly in order to differentiate her novels from her already prolific corpus of articles and translations, and secondly to distance herself from the perceived disadvantage of being a 'lady novelist' in contemporary Victorian society.
Scenes of Clerical Life is composed of three short stories set in the fictional town of Milby in the English Midlands, "The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton", "Mr Gilfil's Love Story" and "Janet's Repentance". They are set in the early nineteenth century and evoke a now-lost rural world, undisturbed by urbanization, an organic environment from which Eliot's folkish, moralizing stories can grow without disturbance. Indeed, Eliot's description of the change in the town of Milby since her stories took place presents the fictional town as a microcosm for the entire English countryside; "More than a quarter of a century has slipped by since then, and in the interval Milby has advanced at as rapid a pace as other market-towns in her Majesty’s dominions...".
John C. Eckel wrote one of the principle bibliographies of Charles Dickens
An exceptional copy with extraordinary provenance.
REFERENCES:Parrish 7; Sadlier 818; Wolff 2062
PROVENANCE:John C. Eckel (bookplate; his sale, Anderson Galleries, 15-16 January 1935, lot 1401) — Efrem Zimbalist (his sale, Parke Bernet, 15-16 November 1939, lot 122) — Katharine de B. Parsons (her sale, Sotheby's Parke Bernet, 6 October 1976, lot 76) — Dr. Gerald E Slater (his sale, Christie's New York, 12 February 1982, lot 298) — Richard Manney (bookplate to front pastedown; his sale, Sotheby's New York, 11 October 1991, lot 128)
Property from an Important American Collection
Eliot, GeorgeScenes of Clerical Life. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1858
2 volumes, 8vo. Half-titles. Publisher's maroon cloth by Edmonds & Remnant, covers decorated in blind, spines gilt, brown endpapers; spines lightly sunned, signs of careful restoration work to joints and extremities, especially to the spine of volume II and the upper cover. Collector's brown quarter calf slipcase with folding chemises.
First edition of Eliot's first novel — the very fine Eckel-Zimbalist-Parsons-Slater-Manney copy.
This is the first appearance of Mary Ann Evan's pen name, George Eliot. She took this up for her foray into novel writing, and continued to use this throughout her career, firstly in order to differentiate her novels from her already prolific corpus of articles and translations, and secondly to distance herself from the perceived disadvantage of being a 'lady novelist' in contemporary Victorian society.
Scenes of Clerical Life is composed of three short stories set in the fictional town of Milby in the English Midlands, "The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton", "Mr Gilfil's Love Story" and "Janet's Repentance". They are set in the early nineteenth century and evoke a now-lost rural world, undisturbed by urbanization, an organic environment from which Eliot's folkish, moralizing stories can grow without disturbance. Indeed, Eliot's description of the change in the town of Milby since her stories took place presents the fictional town as a microcosm for the entire English countryside; "More than a quarter of a century has slipped by since then, and in the interval Milby has advanced at as rapid a pace as other market-towns in her Majesty’s dominions...".
John C. Eckel wrote one of the principle bibliographies of Charles Dickens
An exceptional copy with extraordinary provenance.
REFERENCES:Parrish 7; Sadlier 818; Wolff 2062
PROVENANCE:John C. Eckel (bookplate; his sale, Anderson Galleries, 15-16 January 1935, lot 1401) — Efrem Zimbalist (his sale, Parke Bernet, 15-16 November 1939, lot 122) — Katharine de B. Parsons (her sale, Sotheby's Parke Bernet, 6 October 1976, lot 76) — Dr. Gerald E Slater (his sale, Christie's New York, 12 February 1982, lot 298) — Richard Manney (bookplate to front pastedown; his sale, Sotheby's New York, 11 October 1991, lot 128)
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