WALFORD, L[ucy] B[ethia].

The Mischief of Monica ... in three Volumes ...

London, Longmans, Green, & Co. … 1891. 3 vols., 8vo.; original smooth light grey cloth, lettered ingilt; soiling to the pale cloth of all three volumes, spines darkened, else a good copy. Inscribed by the author in volume I, evidently to replace another copy: ‘To Nell from her own loving Mother, on giving Olive her copy to take to the East. May 1898’; bookplate of L. B. Walford and her husband, Alfred Sanders Walford, in volume III. First edition. Born in Edinburgh in 1845, Walford began writing secretly soon after her marriage, contributing stories to Blackwood’s and other periodicals. Her family voiced serious disapproval upon the publication of her first novel, Mr Smith: A Part of his Life, in 1874; it was, however, a great success, and earned her an audience with Queen Victoria. The Mischief of Monica follows the fortunes of Monica Lavenham and her sister, Isabel, ‘two young beauties of high fashion’, sent from London’s lively social scene to live with their uncle in Lancashire. Not in Wolff, who had other of her novels.

• GBP 425.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: E874

• bookseller: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)