Beschreibung:

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft VALPERGA: OR, THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF CASTRUCCIO, PRINCE OF LUCCA. LONDON: G. AND W. B. WHITAKER, 1823. 3 volumes. 12mo (190 x 110 mm). Light stain in upper corner of a few leaves of one volume. Original gray boards with paper labels; labels a little rubbed and some minor rubbing at joints and spine ends with spot of restoration at head of one volume. Cloth case. first edition of Shelley's second novel, a study of sexual politics, considered by many to be her finest work. "Her creation of Frankenstein at the age of eighteen is a marvel known to many; but few if any are aware that Valperga, her second novel, excels the first almost as much as Alastor surpasses Queen Mab. It is, indeed, her best novel, having a richness of imaginative style and a creative force in combination with a thoroughness of scholarship that are exhibited in none of her other works. Shelley and Godwin enthusiastically recognized its advance beyond Frankenstein, and rightly expected great things of her in the future." (Frederick L. Jones The Letters of Mary W. Shelley)