LADY'S DRAWING ROOM (The). Being a faithfull Picture of the great World. In which the various Humours of both Sexes are display'd. Drawn from the Life: and interspers'd with entertaining and affecting Novels.

London: Printed and sold by M. Cooper … and A. Dodd … 1744. 12mo., pp. [2], iv, 329, [1]; rebound in modern period-style mottled calf, gilt; some slight soiling, short tear to H11 repaired, but a very good copy. First edition of a ‘collection of brief amorous novels, imaginary voyages, and moral histoires, told to each other by the daily visitors to the drawing room of the beautiful Ethelinda, who has banished cards and gossip in favor of the edifying art of storytelling’ (Beasley). The Preface tells us that ‘tho’ the Ground-work is Satyr, it is not without some Touches of Panegyrick, ---- a great deal of Love, ---- some few Sprinklings of Morality, and a small Dash of Philosophy’. Villains abound, and one of the heroines, Henrietta de Bellgrave, faces an astonishing number of threats to her virtue on her calamitous voyage to the East Indies: ‘I tore, I scratch’d the abandon’d Monster; I sprung from his Grasp and fled. -- He pursued and overtook me; -- Again I was in his Power. I made the Forest eccho with my Cries.’ She escapes this brute, but worse is to follow. This tale was afterwards reprinted as a separate novella.Beasley 136; Gove, Imaginary Voyage, pp. 308-9 (for ‘Henrietta de Bellgrave’).

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