MILLER, THOMAS

Gideon Giles the Roper.

London: James Hayward, 1841. First edition. Wolff 4795; not noted in NCBEL. 8vo, contemporary blackquarter calf, marbled sides, red leather label, gilt rules and lettering. Frontis, 23 plates and 12 woodcut vignettes by Edward Lambert. ¶ A social reform novel that attacks the law that forbade the practice of peddling wares outside one’s own parish. Miller also swipes at other class inequities: a Baronet repeatedly attempts to abduct Gideon Giles’ daughter; a malevolent game-keeper sets his dog loose on a helpless woman; the poor are constantly driven to crime, immorality or madness. Much of this is based on Miller’s first-hand experience: he was “one of the very few Victorian novelists of proletarian origins” - Sutherland, Victorian Fiction. Miller, who became a bookseller with the aid of Samuel Rogers, was apprenticed at an early age to a basket-maker, thus earning him the nick-name “the basket-maker poet.” Edges a little rubbed; label slightly chipped; very good copy.

• USD 375.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: 18876

• bookseller: Brick Row Book Shop (USA)