SMITH, Charlotte.

The Young Philosopher.

London: T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, 1798. FIRST EDITION Volume 1: TP + 3[sic]-viii = Preface + [1]-274; Volume 2: TP + [1]-278; Volume 3: TP + [1]-284; Volume 4: TP + [1]-400, Large 12 mo. Charlotte Turner Smith was one of the most popular writers of the 1780's and 1790's and an influential contributor to the Revolution controversy in Britain. Smith's contribution to the development of the British novel is indisputable: her Gothic romances Emmeline (1788), Ethelinde (1789), and Celestina (1791) are among the first examples of a feminine genre which fused narratives of persecution with lyrical landscape description. Smith's most accomplished novel, The Old Manor House (1793), is a classic prototype of the condition-of-England novel, later perfected in the works of her admirer Jane Austen.The Young Philosopher is her last novel, signallinga return to outspoken radical fiction. With no hope of foreseeable political change, a break with the British status quo was depicted by Smith as the only solution. And so her protagonist, the "philosopher" Delmont, seeks the liberties of America, leaving Britain where "the miseries inflicted by the social compact greatly exceed the happiness derived from it". Not surprisingly, by the late 1790's the taint of Jacobinism had stuck to Smith and gained her a mention among Richard Polwhele's band of Unsex'd Females, which accused her of resigning "her power to please" and suffering "her mind to be infected with the Gallic mania." Bound in contemporary ¾ leather with marbled boards. Spine tips and joints professionally renewed. With a modern bookplate to the inside front cover of each volume. The small red contemporary label of Hookham and Carpenters, Bond Street (Georgian booksellers) loosely inserted in Volume 1. Pages foxed with some random staining. Overall, a lovely set of a rare novel. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.

• USD 2,500.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: 180

• bookseller: Athena Rare Books (USA)