8vo. In three volumes. xx, 634, [2]; [2], 693, [3]; [2], 504pp. Contemporary gilt-tooled mottled calf, contrasting red morocco lettering-pieces, all edges red. Rubbed, loss to head of dulled spines. Marbled endpapers, very occasional light spotting.

The third edition of Stéphanie Félicité, Comtesse de Genlis' (1746-1830) popular collection of juvenile conduct of life tales, first published in 1784. Thomas Holcroft's (1745-1809) English translation of the work was notably read with irritation by Jane Austen, who, in a letter to her cousin Caroline, commented that 'we were disgusted in twenty pages, as, independent of a bad translation, it has indelicacies which disgrace a pen hitherto so pure, and we changed it for the Female Quixote, which now makes our evening's amusement'.