First edition in book form, following serialisation in Fraser’s, of Peacock’s final novel, perhaps his most witty and urbane. At a convivial house party at Gryll Grange the eccentric guests debate a whole range of mid-Victorian issues from the pretensions of science and the zeal of the reformers to the new-fangled ‘pantopragmatic cookery’, spirit rapping, and the competitive examinations for the Civil Service. Peacock’s inveterate hostility to modern innovation imbues every episode. Written at the age of 75, thirty years after his last previous novel (Crotchet Castle, 1831), Gryll Grange is a remarkable performance.

Sadleir 1957k (in the Gaisford set); Wolff 5479.

You may also be interested in...

HOLCROFT, Thomas.

The Family Picture; or, domestic Dialogues on amiable and interesting Subjects: illustrated by Histories, Allegories, Tales, Fables, Anecdotes, &c. intended to strengthen and inform the Mind … London: Printed for Lockyer Davis … Printer to the Royal Society. 1783.

First edition of an early work by the radical playwright and novelist Thomas Holcroft. The Egerton family gather in the library every evening to tell stories for their mutual instruction and amusement. The novel takes the form of twenty dialogues, and each includes a number of shorter tales. Several have a European flavour reflecting Holcroft’s wide reading in German literature: ‘Conjugal Affection of the Women of Wensberg’; ‘Emulation: or an Account of a famous German Poetess’ [Louisa Darbach]; ‘Pride: or the extraordinary History of a Venetian Lady’. Others have an oriental cast: ‘Selfishness: or the Merchant of Bagdat’; ‘Fortitude: or the Great Traveller’ [‘I am the son of a master of a ship of Basra, and my name is Aboulfaouaris’]; ‘An Account of Mahomet and Mahometanism … his Paradise … his Hell … Terrible Relation of a Turkish Fast’.

Read more

A SINGLE MAN POSSESSED OF A GOOD FORTUNE LEIGH, Samuel Egerton, Sir.

Munster Abbey, a Romance; interspersed with Reflections on Virtue and Morality … in three Volumes … Edinburgh: Printed by John Moir … for W. Creech, Cross, and S.

First edition. Despite its ‘gothic’ title this is a novel of contemporary high life in England and on the Grand Tour, avoiding ‘extravagant descriptions of supernatural scenes and events’. Munster Abbey in Devon is the seat of the hero, Mr. Belford, a bachelor ‘happily possessed of a fortune, ample as his wishes’. This was Leigh’s only novel – he died at twenty-six – assembled by his widow from her husband’s ‘scattered papers’ and, the ‘Advertisement’ implies, possibly finished by her.

Read more