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The Mysteries of Udolpho, a Romance; interspersed with some Pieces of Poetry ... in four Volumes ...

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First edition of a cornerstone of gothic fiction, ‘a book so rich in Gothic ideas and techniques that its far-reaching influence can scarcely be overstated … Its wild and lush landscapes became ubiquitous too, in the imagination of contemporaries, and it is no surprise to find Keats, in 1818, writing playfully to John Hamilton Reynolds: “I am going into scenery where I intend to tip you a Damosel Radcliffe – I’ll cavern you, and grotto you, and waterfall you, and wood you, and immense-rock you, and tremendous sound you, and solitude you”. No one of his, or the previous, generation would have misunderstood the allusion’ (Frank).

Garside, Raven and Schöwerling 1794: 47; Rothschild 1701; Tinker 1703.

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A 'GOTHIC'S GOTHIC' WALKER, George.

Don Raphael, a Romance …

First edition. ‘In order to satisfy the omnipresent needs of the Gothic industry, Walker apparently felt obliged to turn out a Gothic’s Gothic made up of fragments of Walpole, Beckford, Lewis, Radcliffe, and the cheap and tawdry Gothic chapbooks flooding the bookstalls. The dubious product was Don Raphael, Walker’s most confounding Gothic endeavour and a Gothic romance so complicated and top-heavy with plot twistings that the reader who enters it must necessarily lose his way many times ... Before the fiasco of Don Raphael, Walker had displayed true talent in novels of doctrine which explored social problems and criticised Godwinian radicalism. The prostitution of his own literary talents in Don Raphael apparently convinced him to abandon novel writing’ (Frank). Summers was more forgiving, calling it ‘equally good’ to The Three Spaniards (1800) – ‘Walker must certainly be accounted as an author of uncommon merit’ (The Gothic Quest, p. 82).

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RASSELAS IN CONTEMPORARY STATE [JOHNSON, Samuel]. 

The Prince of Abissinia.  A Tale … 

First edition of Johnson’s only novel, written in the evenings of a single week to pay for his mother’s funeral.  Its rapid execution is said to have been due to the fact that he had been pondering its chief topics all his life.  It soon became his most popular work.  Although now inevitably called ‘Rasselas’ after the name of the hero, that title was not used in the author’s lifetime except for the first American edition (1768). 

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