The English Novel, 1800–1829 : Update 3 (June 2002–May 2003)

Peter Garside, with Jacqueline Belanger, Sharon Ragaz, Anthony Mandal

This project report relates to The English Novel, 1770–1829: A Bibliographical Survey of Prose Fiction published in the British Isles, general editors Peter Garside, James Raven, and Rainer Schöwerling, 2 vols (Oxford: OUP, 2000). In particular it offers fresh commentary on the entries in the second volume, which was co-edited by Peter Garside and Rainer Schöwerling, with the assistance of Christopher Skelton-Foord and Karin Wünsche. The present report is the third Update in what is intended to be a series of annual Reports, each featuring information that has come to light in the preceding year as a result of activities in CEIR and through contributions sent by interested individuals outside Cardiff.

The entries below are organised in a way that matches the order of material in the English Novel, 1770–1829. While making reference to any relevant changes that may have occurred in Updates 1 and 2, the ‘base’ it refers to is the printed Bibliography and not the preceding reports. Sections A and B concern authorship, with the first of these proposing changes to the attribution as given in the printed Bibliography, and the second recording the discovery of new information of interest that has nevertheless not led presently to new attributions. Section C includes three additional titles which match the criteria for inclusion and should ideally have been incorporated in the printed Bibliography, while the last two sections involve information such as is usually found in the Notes field of entries, and those owning copies of the printed Bibliography might wish (as in the case of the earlier categories) to amend entries accordingly. An element of colour coding has been used to facilitate recognition of the nature of changes, with red denoting revisions and additions to existing entries in the Bibliography, and the additional titles discovered being picked out in blue. Reference numbers (e.g. 1806: 12) are the same as those in the English Novel, 1770–1829; when found as cross references these refer back to the original Bibliography, unless accompanied with ‘above’ or ‘below’, in which case a cross reference within the present report is intended. Abbreviations match those listed at the beginning volume 2 of the English Novel, though in a few cases these are spelled out more fully for the convenience of present readers.

This report was prepared by Peter Garside, with significant inputs of information from Drs Jacqueline Belanger and Sharon Ragaz, on this occasion especially as a result of their trawls through (respectively) the Longman Letter Books and Blackwood Papers. Additional information was provided by Dr Anthony Mandal, who was also responsible for preparing the report in its final form via the Cardiff Corvey website. Information was also generously communicated by a number of individuals, notably: Professors Rolf Loeber and Magda Stouthamer-Loeber, from Pittsburgh University, and Timothy Killick at Cardiff University. As previously the Cardiff team has benefited from its association with Projekt Corvey at Paderborn University, most recently through the joint preparation of a Bibliography of Fiction, 1830–1836 (also included in Issue 10 of Cardiff Corvey). Thanks are also due to Michael Bott, of Reading University Library, for help received in locating materials in the Longman archives; and to the trustees of the National Library of Scotland [E] for permission to quote from manuscripts in their care.

A: New and Changed Author Attributions

1820: 7
[DRISCOLL, Miss].
NICE DISTINCTIONS: A TALE.
Dublin: Printed at the Hibernia Press Office, 1, Temple-Lane for J. Cumming 16, Lower Ormond-Quay; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London, 1820.
vii, 330p. 8vo. 10s 6d (ECB, ER).
ER 33: 518 (May 1820), 34: 263 (Aug 1820).
Corvey; CME 3-628-48223-2; ECB 413; NSTC 2N7355 (BI BL, C, Dt, O).
Notes. Preface to ‘Jedediah Cleishbotham’, dated Dublin, 30 Sept 1819. A review in the Dublin Magazine, 1 (May 1820), ends with the following short paragraph: ‘We now take our farewell of D—l’s NICE DISTINCTIONS; but we sincerely hope that we may again see characters as nicely distinguished as this work promises’ (p. 378). The copy of the novel in Trinity College, Dublin, has a pencil annotation identifying the author as ‘Miss Driscoll’.

1822: 10
[?HACK, Mrs William].
REFORMATION: A NOVEL. IN THREE VOLUMES.
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, 1822.
I 362p; II 303p; III 333p. 12mo. 18s (ECB, ER).
ER 38: 522 (May 1823); WSW II: 30.
Corvey; CME 3-628-48523-1; ECB 484; NSTC 2R5611 (BI BL, C).
Notes. A draft letter to William Hack of 1 Aug 1822 in the Longman Letter Books reads: ‘On the other side you have the opinion of our literary friend respecting the Novel you sent us. As it is the first production of the Author we requested our friend to go into detail & if she will make the proposed alterations, we shall be happy to see the MS again, when it is very likely we shall engage in the publication. The MS is forwarded by this nights coach’ (Longman I, 101, no. 311A). The letter is addressed to Hack at Market St., Brighton. The Longman Divide Ledger entry for this novel indicates a balance due to ‘Mrs Hack’ of £7. 8. 6 (dated 1 Feb 1825): this points to the likelihood that Reformation was the work of the wife or a female relation of William Hack. It might even be possible to attribute the novel to Maria Barton Hack (1777–1844), a prolific writer of children’s literature, though her first work, Winter Evenings: or Tales of Travellers, appeared in 1818. Mention of the present item being ‘a first work’ is made in another letter to William Hack, evidently later in 1822, sending further recommendations from the reader and returning the MS (no. 296B).

1823: 20
[?ASHWORTH, John Harvey or ?FRENCH, Augustus].
HURSTWOOD: A TALE OF THE YEAR 1715. IN THREE VOLUMES.
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, Paternoster-Row, 1823.
I v, 241p; II 250p; III 218p. 12mo. 16s 6d (ECB, ER).
ER 39: 512 (Jan 1824); WSW II: 42.
Corvey; CME 3-628-47753-0; ECB 290; NSTC 2A17728 (BI BL, C, O; NA DLC, MH).
Notes. Dedication to Archer Clunn, Esq. of Griffynhavel, dated Hallcar, County of Radnor, June 1823. Attributed to Ashworth in H&L and generally in catalogues and bibliographies. However, a letter of 12 Sept 1823 addressed to the Revd Augustus French in the Longman Letter Books, concerning terms, makes no mention of any other author: ‘Agreeably to my promise I have examined the MS of “Hirstwood” [sic] and the house is willing to engage in the speculation on the terms I explained to you—namely, that the house should be at the expense & risk of Paper, Printing &c &c and that the profits of the first & future editions be divided equally with the author—you will please to inform me if the terms are agreed to, as the Work should appear as early as possible’ (Longman I, 101, no. 381A) The letter is addressed to French at Westbury, near Bristol. It is also perhaps significant that other works commonly attributed to Ashworth were published in the 1850s or later.

1825: 2
[O’DRISCOL, John].
THE ADVENTURERS; OR, SCENES IN IRELAND, IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH. IN THREE VOLUMES.
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, Paternoster Row, 1825.
I iv, 341p; II 321p; III 322p. 12mo. 21s (ER, QR).
ER 42: 514 (Aug 1825), 43: 356–72 (Feb 1826) full review; QR 32: 549 (Oct 1825).
Corvey; CME 3-628-47021-8; NSTC 2A4376 (BI C, E, O).
Notes. Identified as O’Driscol’s through a sequence of letters in the Longman Letter Books. In a letter to J. O’Driscol Esq of 14 June 1823, the firm state: ‘We shall be happy to publish the Tale to which you allude on the plan upon which we publish your work on Ireland, dividing the profits of every edition’ (Longman I, 101, no. 369). That the ‘tale’ relates to the above novel is evident from a sequence of other letters from Longmans written to the widow and her representatives after the author’s death. In the last of these, to a Mr N. Vincent, Owen Rees on 31 Oct 1829 writes: ‘we will thank you to pay her the inclosed £60, taking a proper receipt, stating it to be a settlement in full for all the Interest of the said John O’Driscol in “Views of Ireland” “The Adventurers” & “The History of Ireland” first edition’ (I, 102, no. 106D). O’Driscol’s other works include Views of Ireland, moral, political, and religious (1823) and The History of Ireland (1827), both of which were published by Longmans. This is one of four novels which are together given full reviews in ER (Feb 1826) under the page-top heading ‘Irish Novels’.

1825: 15
[DODS, Mary Diana].
TALES OF THE WILD AND THE WONDERFUL.
London: Printed for Hurst, Robinson, and Co. 5 Waterloo-Place, Pall Mall; and A. Constable and Co. Edinburgh, 1825.
x, 356p. 8vo. 10s 6d (ECB).
WSW II: 53–4.
Corvey; CME 3-628-51167-4; ECB 576; NSTC 2B41787 (BI BL, C, O; NA DLC, MH).
Notes. Dedication to Joanna Baillie. Wolff’s proposal (vol. 1, p. 111; Item 601) of Dods, a friend of Mary Shelley and a contributor to Blackwood’s Magazine, as an alternative solution to the contested issue of George Borrow’s authorship of this work, finds incontestable support in two sources. In two letters to William Blackwood, of 16 and 5 May 1825, David Lyndsay discusses details of the work as its author (E, MS 4015, fols 27, 29). David Lyndsay in turn is identified as a pseudonym of Mary Diana Dods by Betty T. Bennett in her Mary Diana Dods, A Gentleman and a Scholar (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991), where this collection of tales is discussed directly as Dods’s own (see pp. 23, 64–68). ECB dates Oct 1825.
Further edn: Philadelphia 1826 (NSTC).

1827: 29
[CROWE, Eyre Evans].
VITTORIA COLONNA: A TALE OF ROME, IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. IN THREE VOLUMES.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood, and T. Cadell, London, 1827.
I 278p; II 247p; III 252p. 12mo. 18s (ECB, QR); 18s boards (ER).
ER 46: 534 (Oct 1827); QR 36: 603 (Oct 1827).
Corvey; CME 3-628-48919-9; ECB 616; NSTC 2E1362 (BI BL, C, O; NA DLC, MH).
Notes. The arguments of Wolff (I, 323) for attributing this title to Crowe, as opposed to Charlotte Anne Eaton, finds substantial support in the Blackwood Papers, where letters between Crowe and Blackwood directly relating to the composition and production of the novel are found between Mar 1825 and June 1827 (see E, MSS 4014, 4106, 4019). In the last of these, Crowe complains that ‘[t]he second title […] is rather aping Constable’s Rome in the 19th Century’ (MS 4019, f. 65), this itself alluding to Charlotte Anne Eaton’s successful travelogue, Rome in the Nineteenth Century, first published by Archibald Constable & Co in 1820. Confusion caused by the two titles offers the most likely explanation of why Eaton’s name became associated with this novel at all.
Further edn: German trans., 1828.

1828: 4
[?CHALKLEN, Charles William and/or ?CHALKLEN, Miss].
THE HEBREW, A SKETCH IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: WITH THE DREAM OF SAINT KENYA.
Edinburgh: Printed for W. Blackwood, and T. Cadell, Strand, London, 1828.
viii, 232p. 12mo. 5s 6d (ECB).
Corvey; CME 3-628-51037-6; ECB 262; NSTC 2H15773 (BI BL, E, O).
Notes. Pp. [221]–232 contain ‘The Dream of Saint Kenya’ (poem). Surviving letters in the Blackwood papers indicate that the author was either the Revd Charles William Chalklen or his sister. In the first of these, dated 5 Sept 1827, Chalklen urges William Blackwood for a response to manuscripts sent: ‘It is odd I shd not yet have heard from you anything of ye “Hebrew” now in your hands—at least in your house. It is by a Lady and my Sister […] I must hear from you a decisive answer as to whether you will risque ye publication of ye // 1. Hebrew// 2. Sworn Brothers // 3. Shadow // in one volume’ (E, MS 4019, f. 27). This letter gives Chalklen’s address as Kingstead, near Thrapston, Northants. Chalklen’s statement that ‘The Hebrew’ is the work of his sister is repeated in a similar letter of 1 Nov 1827 (f. 29), which refers to ‘The “Hebrew” a Tale by my Sister—in my handwriting’; but any authorship other than that by the sender appears to receive sceptical treatment in the reader’s report sent by David Macbeth Moir to Blackwood on 3 Oct 1827: ‘I return you Charles Chalklands [sic] alias Williamson, alias ——s MSS which I have carefully read over’ (MS 4020, f. 39). No mention of a sister can be found in two letters from Chalklen’s father, on 8 Jan and 11 Mar 1828, concerning what appears to be a private financing of ‘The Hebrew’ with Blackwood handling the public launch (MS 4021, fols 84, 86). Altogether it is not clear whether The Hebrew was primarily written by Chalken’s sister (whose surname might then of course have been different), or by Chalklen himself, though the latter is perhaps more likely. Charles William Chalklen’s acknowledged works include Babylon, a Poem (1821) and Semiramis, an Historical Morality, and Other Poems (1847). ECB dates Mar 1828.

B: New Information Relating to Authorship, but not Presently Leading to Attribution Changes

1812: 63 [?WATSON, Miss], ROSAMUND, COUNTESS OF CLARENSTEIN. The question mark qualifying the attribution, hitherto based on the MS inscription in the Harvard copy, can now be removed in the light of two letters by Dorothy Wordsworth. The first, to Jane Marshall of 2 May 1813, reads: ‘I write merely to request that you will send Miss Watson’s Novel as soon as you have done with it’ (The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: III: The Middle Years, ed. by Ernest De Selincourt, 2nd edn, rev. by Mary Moorman and Alan G. Hill (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), II, 95). Another letter of 18 Feb 1815 to Sara Hutchinson, commenting on Anna Maria Porter’s The Recluse of Norway (1814: 46), states: ‘There is a good deal of Miss Watson in the colouring of the Ladies [i.e. Porter sisters]; and when love begins almost all novels grow tiresome’ (ibid., II, 203). Support for this definitely being the daughter of Richard Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, is found in a later letter of 26 Feb 1826, where Dorothy writes of ‘Watson’s of Calgarth (the Bishop’s Daughter)’, the Watsons having settled at Calgarth in 1789 (The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth: V: The Later Years, ed. by Ernest de Selincourt, 2nd edn, ed. and rev. by Alan G. Hill (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), I, 95).

1813: 1 ANON, DEMETRIUS, A RUSSIAN ROMANCE. Some light is thrown on the authorship in a letter of 6 Jan 1813 to Revd William Manley in the Longman Letter Books: ‘We were duly favored with your letter & the life of Demetrius which we have perused with pleasure; and if you & the authoress approve we will undertake the publication of it on the same plan as we publish the works of Mrs Opie & several other of our authors—we to print the work at our own risk & divide the profits of every edition with the author. // We could put the work to press as soon as we receive your answer. // The title we consider as rather of two [sic] classical an appearance for a novel & we would recommend the author to think of a more popular nature’ (Longman I, 98, no. 4). Taken at face value, this indicates female authorship, with Manley acting as a go-between; on the other hand, some room ought perhaps to be allowed for Manley himself having a more direct hand in the composition than acknowledged. Evidently, in this case Longmans’ advice over the title led at best only to modification.

1819: 29 [BUSK, Mrs. M. M.], ZEAL AND EXPERIENCE: A TALE. See 1825: 17 below, for a more positive identification of the author as Mary Margaret Busk.

1820: 10 ANON, TALES OF MY LANDLORD, NEW SERIES, CONTAINING PONTEFRACT CASTLE. A letter from Robert Cadell to Archibald Constable, written at the height of the furore over this allegedly spurious publication, opens up the possibility of authorship by Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776–1847). Cadell on 30 Oct 1819 writes: ‘You will see by the Morning Chronicle of this day that John B[allantyne] has got a reply to his letter, it is causing some laughing—and the best is to say nothing more on the subject at present—it is now no quizz—I hear that Thos Dibdin is the author’ (E, MS 323, fol. 36v). It is possible that Cadell here is referring to authorship of the riposte against Scott’s representative in the paper, and there is also an alternative Dibdin in Thomas John Dibdin (1771–1841), the actor and playwright. The possibilities are at best faint, though it is perhaps worth noting that Thomas Frognall Dibdin was known in the Constable circle, and is also on record of having at least dabbled with fiction at this period (his La Belle Marianne: a tale of truth and fiction, a short piece, was published in 1824).

1821: 17 ANON, TALES OF MY LANDLORD, NEW SERIES, CONTAINING THE FAIR WITCH OF GLAS LLYN. As the sequel to the first ‘new series’ (1820: 10), the comments made above relating to possible authorship by Dibdin might also apply to this title.

1821: 22 [BENNET, William], THE CAVALIER. A ROMANCE. NSTC in listing the Philadelphia 1822 edn held at Harvard notes: ‘sometimes attributed Thomas Roscoe junior’. Two further ‘Bennet’ titles, The King of the Peak (1823: 23) and Owain Goch (1827: 16), are given in DNB and CBEL3 as by Thomas Roscoe (1791–1871), the son of William Roscoe. The dedication of The King of the Peak to the Mayor of Liverpool might also seem to promote the idea of a Roscoe / Liverpool connection. Furthermore, several of the letters addressed to William Bennett Esq in the Longman archives appear at points to indicate that he is the agent rather than actual author. See, for example, the firm’s letter of 7 Jan 1823: ‘If your friend can fix on any other good title, it may be as well not to take that of “King of the Peak”: for, though it may be explained away in the Preface, at first it will be considered as an adoption of part of the title of Peverell of the Peak’ (Letter Books, Longman I, 101, no. 338). On the other hand, there can be no denying the Derbyshire credentials of this set of novels; and, in this particular instance, the author responded in his Preface by asserting that ‘there are many respectable gentlemen in the county of Derby, who can bear witness that I intended publishing this work under the title it bears, before there was any annunciation of Peveril of the Peak’ (vol. 1, p. xvi). Especially telling in this regard is the family copy described in Wolff (vol. 1, p. 71; Item 385), with a note laid in saying ‘These books were written by my great grandfather William Bennet under the pseudonym Lee Gibbons’. One possible solution for the Longman letters might be that Bennet’s father, another William, was acting on behalf of his trainee lawyer son. Alternatively a precocious younger Bennet could have been successfully juggling the roles of author and agent himself. Is there evidence of a family of Derbyshire lawyers in Chapel-en-le-Frith (the place given in the Dedication of 1821: 22)?

1825: 17 [BUSK, Mrs. M. M.], TALES OF FAULT AND FEELING. BY THE AUTHOR OF “ZEAL AND EXPERIENCE”. Clear identification of the author as Mary Margaret Busk (1779–1863) can be found in Ellen Curran, ‘Holding on by a Pen: the Story of a Lady Reviewer’, Victorian Periodicals Review 31:1 (Spring 1998), 9–30. Busk, whose literary career followed the financial difficulties of her father (Alexander Blair) and husband (William Busk), is described there as a prolific contributor to the reviews, her many other publications including several histories, translations and children’s book. It would also appear that it was this writer’s parents who are being referred to by Maria Edgeworth in a letter of 4 March 1819: ‘After spending at the rate of ten thousand a year in high London society he died almost ruined leaving his widow scarce £400 a year. She now writes novels if not for bread for butter’ (Letters from England, 1813–1844, ed. by Christina Colvin (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), p. 173). No novels by Mrs Blair have so far been identified, though the date of Edgeworth’s letter perhaps opens up the possibility of collaboration with her daughter on Zeal and Experience (see under 1819: 29, above).

1827: 62 [SCARGILL, William Pitt], TRUCKLEBOROUGH HALL; A NOVEL. An element of doubt was cast in Update 1 on whether this title, as well Rank and Talent (1829: 72), and Tales of a Briefless Barrister (1829: 73), conventionally attributed to Scargill and all upmarket novels published by Henry Colburn, should be unquestioningly treated as by Scargill. The records of the Royal Literary Fund indicate that these are almost certainly his. A letter from Mrs Scargill to C. P. Roney (4 Jan 1837), concerning subscriptions to the posthumous The Widow’s Offering, gives Truckleborough Hall as the first work by the author to be listed in the title-page (RLF 27: 839, Item 5. Two cuttings from the Morning Chronicle of 1855 included in the file (Item 8) also give as among the authors works: Truckleborough Hall, Rank and Talent, and Tales of a Briefless Barrister. No mention is made at any point of Truth. A Novel by the author of Nothing (1826: 68), Elizabeth Evanshaw, The Sequel of Truth (1827: 61), and Penelope; or, Love’s Labours Lost (1828: 70), which must remain at best problematically connected with Scargill.

1828: 1 ANON, DE BEAUVOIR; OR, SECOND LOVE. A letter from George Croly to William Blackwood, 21 Jan 1828, identifies the author as a female acquaintance: ‘A lady, the widow of an officer, & a friend of mine, has just published a Novel, De Beauvoir, or Second Love which strikes me as clever, & of which she has prodigious anxiety to have some notice taken in the more prominent publications. I should wish to oblige her by some short account of two or three pages of Criticisms in your Magazine. […] The book is graceful & vigorous, a particular novel without any of the stupidities & affectations of boudoir & drawing room knowledge which have brought the name into disrepute’ (E, MS 4021, fol. 126).

C: New Titles for Inclusion

1806
PALMER, Sarah Cornelia.
THE DREAM. BY SARAH CORNELIA PALMER.
London: Printed by E. Thomas, Golden-Lane, Barbican. For J. M‘Kenzie, No. 20, Old-Bailey, and sold by W, Harris, High-Street, Shadwell, and the Booksellers in Town and Country, 1806.
iv, 123p. 8vo. 3s (cover).
C 8000.c.230; NSTC P199 (BI O).
Notes. Clear fictional narrative within the encompassing frame of a dream. ‘Contents’ (pp. [iii]–iv) lists main components, but without giving page numbers. Cambridge copy (not recorded in NSTC) is in original paper covers, with front cover supplying fuller details than the t.p. proper. This reads: ‘This day published, (3s.) The Dream: or Sketches of Some Remarkable Personages in High Life. […] London: Printed and Published by J. Mackenzie, Old Bailey; and Sold by Mr. Harris, Bookseller, Shadwell; Mr. Skelton, Southampton; Mr Matthews, Portsmouth; Mr. Woolmer and Mr. Rising, Exeter; Mr. Birdsall, Northampton; Mr. Sutton, Nottingham; and all other Booksellers in Town and Country, 1806.’ End cover carries a full-page adv. for ‘J. Mackenzie, Bookseller and Publisher’, informing ‘Friends & Customers, that they may be supplied with Account Books of all Descriptions, Ruled and Plain; Cyphering and Copy Books; Memorandum Books; Bibles, Testaments, and Spellings; Reading Made Easy; Watt’s Divine Songs; Thomson’s Seasons, and the Death of Abel, very Neat Pocket Editions, Embellished with Elegant Engravings; Gilt and Plain Paper; Black Lead Pencils, and Stationery of all Kinds, on the Most Reasonable Terms.’

1827
[?YU CHIAO LI]; REMUSAT, [Jean Pierre Abel] (trans.).
IU-KIAO-LI: OR, THE TWO FAIR COUSINS. A CHINESE NOVEL FROM THE FRENCH VERSION OF M. ABEL-REMUSAT. IN TWO VOLUMES.
London: Hunt and Clarke, Covent-Garden, 1827.
I xxxv, 259p; II 290p. 12mo. 14s (ECB).
O 27.261; ECB 303; NSTC 2Y2340 (BI BL, C, E; NA DLC).
Notes. Trans. of Iu-kiao-li, ou les deux cousines, roman chinois traduit par M. Abel-Remusat (Paris, 1826). Inscription in Chinese characters between half-titles and t.p. in each vol. ‘Advertisement’, pp. [vii]–viii; ‘French Translator’s Preface’, pp. [ix]–xxv. Footnote to the latter states: ‘Some commencing observations on the nature and tendency of the modern novel or romance, and on the productions of Sir Walter Scott in particular, are omitted as possessing little which has not been frequently repeated by English writers’ (ixn). ‘Note’ (unn.) states that ‘A copy of Iu-Kiao-Li has for nearly two hundred years formed a part of the very rich collection of Oriental works in the King’s Library at Paris’, and asserts the authenticity of the text. Running headlines read: ‘JU-KIAO-LI: OR, THE TWO COUSINS’. Explanatory footnotes passim in the main text. ‘Supplementary Notes, supplied by J. H. Pickford, Esq., Member of the Asiatic Society of Paris’ at end of each vol. No definitive information about an originating Chinese author has been discovered. ECB dates May 1827.
Further edn: 1830 as The Two Fair Cousins; a Chinese Novel (OCLC).

1829
ANON.
THREE WEEKS IN THE DOWNS, OR CONJUGAL FIDELITY REWARDED: EXEMPLIFIED IN THE NARRATIVE OF HELEN AND EDMUND. A TALE FOUNDED ON FACT. BY AN OFFICER’S WIDOW.
London: Published by John Bennett, Three-Tun Passage, Ivy-Lane, Paternoster-Row; and W. Bennett, Russell-Street, Plymouth, 1829.
663p. 8vo.
O Vet.A6.e.2132; xNSTC.
Notes: Additional engraved t.p., also dated 1829, and bearing the imprint of John Bennett alone. Introductory address (3 pp. unn.) in which the authoress acknowledges indebtedness ‘to some valuable Periodicals, as well as to a recent and excellent work entitled the Night Watch’ (for the latter, see 1828: 11). ‘Contents’ (4 pp. unn.) also precede main narrative, which itself commences on p. [3]. Engraved frontispiece, plus six other plates interleaved in text, all save one (undated) bearing the date 1829. Evidently published first in numbers. Collates in fours.
Further edn: 1834 (NSTC 2D18353).

D: Titles Previously not Located for Which Holding Libraries Have Subsequently Been Discovered

Nothing new to report for this section.

E: New Information Relating to Existing Title Entries

1815: 21 {DESPORRINS, M.}, THE NEVILLE FAMILY. The existing entry should be replaced with the following, as a result of the discovery in the National Library of Ireland of the original 1814 Cork edn, complete with subscription list.

{DESPOURRINS, M.}.
THE NEVILLE FAMILY; AN INTERESTING TALE, FOUNDED ON FACTS. BY A LADY. IN THREE VOLUMES.
Cork: Printed for the Author, by W. West & Co. Nelson-Place, 1814.
I xi, iv, 250p; II 220p; III 188p. 12mo. 13s 6d (QR).
QR 13: 531 (July 1815).
D DixCork1814; xNSTC.
Notes: Dedication ‘to the Right Honorable Lady Kinsale’, signed ‘M. Despourrins’. ‘Subscribers’ Names’ (c. 325 names, mostly from Kinsale and County Cork), vol. 1, pp. [i]–xii. Collates in sixes. Details from QR almost certainly relate to the London 1815 edn (see below).
Further edn: London 1815 (Corvey – probably a reissue with cancel t.p, and lacking the subscription list), CME 3-628-48190-2).

1821: 65 SIDNEY, Philip Francis, THE RULING PASSION, A COMIC STORY, OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Further information about this title has arisen through a letter addressed to ‘Allison & Sidney’ in the Longman Letter Books. Dated 30 Dec 1820, this reads: ‘We wish you had sent us a copy of Ruling Passion. If we are not mistaken it is a translation either from the French or Italian. We have no objection to publish the work for you on the usual terms we do such matters—to account for the books we may sell at the Trade Sale price & charge a commission of 10 P Cent on the sales, you paying all the expenses of Advertising, freight, &c. // Have you not been too sanguine of its sale having printed 2000 copies?’ (Longman I, 101, no. 70). It is likely that Allison & Sidney are ‘the Proprietors of the Hull Packet [a weekly newspaper]’, for whom the novel was printed. Mention of the work being a translation also helps explain the presumably facetious ‘revived, revised, and edited’ incorporated in the fuller title. OCLC (accession no. 8634631) identifies this work as based on La Fuerza de la sangre of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, which itself had been translated into English as The Prevalence of Blood (London, 1729), and again, more recently, as The Force of Blood, a Novel (London: Printed for the translator, by T. Gillet, 1800). No copy of this work with Longmans included in the imprint has been discovered, though it is possible that the firm helped in the remaindering of what is almost certainly correctly perceived to be an over-large impression.

F: Further Editions Previously not Noted

1802: 43 MEEKE, [Mary], MIDNIGHT WEDDINGS. A NOVEL. Blakey lists 2nd edn, 1814 (which is also mentioned in the French trans. of 1820).

1820: 34 HOGG, James, WINTER EVENING TALES. Ian Duncan in his Introduction to the recent Stirling / South Carolina edn of this work (EUP, 2002) gives the sub-title of the German trans. of 1822 as; Winter-Abend-Erzählungen. He also states that it was ascribed to ‘Sir James Hogg’, had a Preface by Sophie Man, and was published first in Berlin in 1822, then again in Vienna in 1826 (p. xx).

1826: 14 [BANIM, John and Michael], TALES OF THE O’HARA FAMILY, SECOND SERIES. Republished 1834 as The Nowlans, and Peter of the Castle (OCLC).

1829: 38[GRATTAN, Thomas Colley], TRAITS OF TRAVEL; OR, TALES OF MEN AND CITIES. New edn 1834, as Tales of Travel; or Traits of Men and Cities (OCLC).

1829: 59 [MARRYAT, Frederick], THE NAVAL OFFICER; OR, SCENES AND ADVENTURES IN THE LIFE OF FRANK MILDMAY. New edn 1835, as Frank Mildmay; or, the Naval Officer (OCLC).

1829: 68 RITCHIE, Leitch, TALES AND CONFESSIONS. New edn 1833, with additions, as London Nights’ Entertainments (NSTC).

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