'MRS. BEHN'S NOVELS, IN TWO VOLUMES'
All the histories and novels Written by the Late Ingeious Mrs. behn, Intire in Two Volumes. Published by Mr. Charles Gildon..
London.
Printed by J.D. for M.P. and sold by A. Bettesworth...and F. Clay, 1722.
Seventh edition, Corrected.
12mo.
xii, 324; 336pp. With the half-title ('Mrs. Behn's Novels, In Two Volumes') and portrait frontispiece (with modern interleaf) engraving of the author (by Robert White, after John Riley) to Vol I, but without the six engraved 'Cuts' referred to on the title. Early twentieth-century gilt-tooled red morocco, A.E.G., by Stikeman. A little rubbed to extremities, especially upper joint of Vol. I., some browning to endpapers and text. With the (1907) bookplate of Louis Henry Bristol, engraved by William Fowler Hopson, to each FEP.
A finely bound copy of an early eighteenth-century collection of the novels of Aphra Behn (c.1640-1689), English Restoration poet and playwright - sadly lacking the engraved cuts.
Whilst little of her early life is known, Behn's biography often begins with her supposed arrival in the English colony of Surinam in late 1663, where apparently the source material for best known novel Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave was sourced. On her return to England, her committed royalism led her to the Court by 1666, and to her serving as a spy for Charles II in the low countries during the Second Anglo Dutch War. Want of payment from the Crown led to a hardship that, fortuitously for the Stage and the English canon, forced Behn to seek gainful employment as a scribe for both Killigrew's King's Company and Betterton's Duke's Company. Having previously composed poetry for pleasure, Behn began writing drama for profit as the Restoration Stage was expanding its horizons.
Behn's collected 'histories and novels' were first published in 1696, but it was not until 1698 - from which this 1722 edition reprints all the novels - that The Nun, Memoirs of the Court of the King of Bantam and The Adventure of the Black Lady' were included. That same edition of 1698 also included a greatly expanded biography of Behn - anonymous but for the designation 'Written by one of the Fair Sex', and long attributed to Charles Gildon himself.
This 1722 edition is rare; ESTC locates just the BL and Oxford copies in the UK, and only six further elsewhere (Chicago, LOC, Northwestern, Princeton, Sydney and Texas A&M - Vol I. only).
Whilst little of her early life is known, Behn's biography often begins with her supposed arrival in the English colony of Surinam in late 1663, where apparently the source material for best known novel Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave was sourced. On her return to England, her committed royalism led her to the Court by 1666, and to her serving as a spy for Charles II in the low countries during the Second Anglo Dutch War. Want of payment from the Crown led to a hardship that, fortuitously for the Stage and the English canon, forced Behn to seek gainful employment as a scribe for both Killigrew's King's Company and Betterton's Duke's Company. Having previously composed poetry for pleasure, Behn began writing drama for profit as the Restoration Stage was expanding its horizons.
Behn's collected 'histories and novels' were first published in 1696, but it was not until 1698 - from which this 1722 edition reprints all the novels - that The Nun, Memoirs of the Court of the King of Bantam and The Adventure of the Black Lady' were included. That same edition of 1698 also included a greatly expanded biography of Behn - anonymous but for the designation 'Written by one of the Fair Sex', and long attributed to Charles Gildon himself.
This 1722 edition is rare; ESTC locates just the BL and Oxford copies in the UK, and only six further elsewhere (Chicago, LOC, Northwestern, Princeton, Sydney and Texas A&M - Vol I. only).
ESTC T136218. O'Donnell Aphra Behn A40.7. Sabin 4370.
£ 2,000.00
Antiquates Ref: 32495
