“WHEN EGBERT DORMER DIED HE LEFT HIS TWO DAUGHTERS UTTERLY PENNILESS UPON THE WORLD…”

TROLLOPE, Anthony. Ayala’s Angel. London: Chapman and Hall, 1881. Three volumes. Octavo, original black-stamped pictorial orange cloth. $1600.

First edition of the delightful social comedy about two sisters and their search for suitable husbands, in original cloth.

In this beloved novel, Trollope follows the fortunes of the Dormer sisters, Ayala and Lucy. Struggling as poor orphans cast out into the world of 19th-century England, each sister is forced to search for that most elusive of things: a suitable husband. “No one has exhibited the outward aspects of the England of his day… as Trollope has done… When the 20th century desires to estimate the 19th, [his works] will be disinterred and studied” (DNB). First published serially in the United States between November 1880 and July 1881; this is considered the first edition. It is quite unusual to find the three-volume orange cloth binding in collectible condition. According to Sadleir, “Ayala’s Angel was not reprinted in its original three-volume form. The balance of first edition sheets was issues three-volumes-in-one in a secondary binding of red cloth.” This first edition ultimately went almost entirely to libraries. Sadleir 60.

Only occasional faint foxing to text, inner paper hinges split, light soiling to cloth, minor rubbing to spine ends, toning to spines. An extremely good copy.