Clara REEVE
The Old English Baron : a gothic story
Printed for Charles Dilly|London 1780|10.50 x 17.50 cm|relié
Second edition, rare. A frontispiece by Hamilton. The first edition dates from 1778.
Contemporary English binding in full mottled brown sheep. Smooth spine decorated with foliage. Red morocco title-label. Border frieze on boards. 3 corners slightly bumped.
After The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole published in 1764, The Old English Baron is the second Gothic novel in literature, and the author, Clara Reeve writes in her preface: "this Story is the literary offspring of the Castle of Otranto, written upon the same plan, with a design to unite the most attractive and interesting circumstances of the ancient Romance and modern Novel, at the same time it assumes a character and manner of its own, that differs from both; it is distinguished by the appellation of a Gothic Story, being a picture of Gothic times and manners." These first two novels gave birth to an important literary current in England which had repercussions in France as well as Germany. The apogee of the Gothic and dark novel being without doubt The Monk by Lewis (1796).
Contemporary English binding in full mottled brown sheep. Smooth spine decorated with foliage. Red morocco title-label. Border frieze on boards. 3 corners slightly bumped.
After The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole published in 1764, The Old English Baron is the second Gothic novel in literature, and the author, Clara Reeve writes in her preface: "this Story is the literary offspring of the Castle of Otranto, written upon the same plan, with a design to unite the most attractive and interesting circumstances of the ancient Romance and modern Novel, at the same time it assumes a character and manner of its own, that differs from both; it is distinguished by the appellation of a Gothic Story, being a picture of Gothic times and manners." These first two novels gave birth to an important literary current in England which had repercussions in France as well as Germany. The apogee of the Gothic and dark novel being without doubt The Monk by Lewis (1796).
€900