“AMONG THE MOST DELIGHTFUL IN THE LANGUAGE”

D'ARBLAY, Madame. Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay. Edited by Her Niece. London: for Henry Colburn, by his successors, Hurst and Blackett, 1854. Seven volumes. 12mo, late 19th-century full polished brown calf gilt, raised bands, brown morocco spine labels, patterned endpapers, top edges gilt. $1800.

Second edition of Madame d’Arblay’s candid, witty and satirical depictions of 18th-century English society, handsomely bound by H. Wood.

"These volumes are among the most delightful in the language… To the mere novel-reader they are charming; to the student of literary history and English manners, invaluable" (Allibone, 475). Madame d'Arblay (better known by her maiden name, Fanny Burney) wrote the extremely popular novels Evelina, Cecilia and Camilla. "Madame d'Arblay's diary is now more interesting than her novels. The descriptions of Mr. Thrale and Johnson and Boswell himself rival Boswell's own work" (DNB). Her works greatly influenced Jane Austen, among others (Austen even took the title Pride and Prejudice from Cecilia's closing pages). Illustrated with engraved frontispiece portrait in each volume, depicting not only the author but also General D'Arblay, Queen Charlotte, Charles Burney and others. Folding facsimile of the diary's first pages in Volume I. First published 1841-46. Lowndes, 591. Owner signatures.

A fine copy, handsomely bound.