BY MARY SHELLEY?
The prize: or, the lace-makers of missenden.
London.
Printed for M. J. Godwin and Co. at the Juvenile Library, 1817.
First edition.
12mo.
[4], 167, [1], 12pp. With a half-title, an engraved frontispiece, and a terminal publisher's advertisement catalogue. Contemporary blind-ruled calf, recently rebacked, contrasting morocco lettering-piece. Heavily rubbed, spine sunned. Hinges exposed, recent bookplate of Francis Edwards of Northwood to FEP, offsetting to title, scattered spotting.
The first edition of an uncommon, decidedly conservative provincial conduct-of-life novel for children, relating the life in Little Missenden of two teenage Fielding sisters, Rose and Sally, who are participants in an established lace-school and competition. Throughout the novel hard-work, localism and the approval of a philanthropic gentry are the victors over the wily incomers from 'Lonnon'.
The conjecture by Emily Sunstein (Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality p.415) that this work and Barnard's Parent's offering (London, 1813) could have been pseudonymous works by Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein and step- daughter of the publisher, seems unlikely. However, it is nevertheless a great coincidence that Shelley had moved to Buckinghamshire in 1816, and that Claire Claremont - her step-sister - refers to reading a copy of The Parent's Offering, in her journal, whilst living with the couple in Pisa during the summer of 1820.
£ 1,250.00
Antiquates Ref: 31043
The conjecture by Emily Sunstein (Mary Shelley: Romance and Reality p.415) that this work and Barnard's Parent's offering (London, 1813) could have been pseudonymous works by Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein and step- daughter of the publisher, seems unlikely. However, it is nevertheless a great coincidence that Shelley had moved to Buckinghamshire in 1816, and that Claire Claremont - her step-sister - refers to reading a copy of The Parent's Offering, in her journal, whilst living with the couple in Pisa during the summer of 1820.
