“THE BEGINNING OF THE ‘FOREIGN’ SPY’ CONVENTION IN ENGLISH LITERATURE”: SCARCE 1694 EDITION OF LETTERS WRIT BY A TURKISH SPY

MARANA, Giovanni Paolo. Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy, Who lived Five and Forty Years, Undiscover’d, at Paris. London: Printed for H. Rhodes, J. Hindmarsh, and R. Sare, 1694. Four volumes. 12mo, contemporary full paneled brown calf sympathetically rebacked, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, red morocco spine labels, raised bands.

First edition of the collected volumes in this premiere narrative of a spy for the Ottoman emperor that originated “the ‘foreign spy’ convention in English literature”—prompting similar tales by Montesquieu, Goldsmith and Defoe, this extremely scarce 1694 edition handsomely bound in contemporary paneled calf. An exceptional copy.

This exceptionally scarce four-volume edition brings together the complete eight books of Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy, “best known as the work which inspired Montesquieu’s Lettres persanes [1721]” and Goldsmith’s Chinese Letters (1760-61). Widely considered “the beginning of the ‘foreign spy’ convention in English literature,” the popularity of Letters Writ led to its being frequently “imitated, augmented and continued by both French and English authors. Among the continuers was Daniel Defoe” in 1718 (McBurney, PMLA, 915). This highly influential work was primarily authored by the Genoa-born Giovanni Paolo Marana, who lived in France in the 1680s. “In 1684 and 1686 he published two small volumes of letters, the first volume both in Italian and in French translation, under the title L’Espion du Grand Seigneur.”

Maran’s spy narrative tells the adventures of “the Ottoman Emperor’s spy, by the name of Mahmut, [who] is supposed to have lived in Paris, in disguise, from 1637 to 1682. He sends reports to Constantinople on politics and current events in France, but corresponds privately on other subjects… The 102 letters of the first volumes are certainly by Marana; the manuscript to the first 68 has survived and official documents confirm his authorship of the others… The original French publication was interrupted, but an English version (Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy) began to appear in 1687, and continued with new letters until a total of eight volumes and 644 letters had been reached by the end of 1692… In literary history, L’Espion turc is best known as the model for Montesquieu’s Lettres persanes, but its importance is greater than that would imply…. Marana’s variation of subject matter and boldness…. showed the potential of the genre” (Betts, Early Deism, 97-8). All eight volumes of the Letters published in English from 1691-94 assembled in this first collected edition: each with individual frontispieces and title pages showing publisher’s 1694 imprint. First volume with general frontispiece and title page, together with Volumes I (“Sixth Edition”) and II (“Fourth Edition”); second volume with Volumes III (“Fourth Edition”) and IV (“Third Edition”); third volume with Volumes V and VI (editions unstated); fourth volume with Volume VII (“Second Ediiton”) and Volume VIII (first edition). Volumes II-IV with rear advertisment pages. Wing M565EA, M565EB. See Graesse IV:379. Armorial bookplates of prominent English landowner Francis Fulford (Vols. III-IV). Light marginalia to front endpapers (Vols. II-IV).

Text generally quite fresh, Volume II with minor expert repair to one leave (Q5). Contemporary calf boards handsome, beautifully rebacked. An exceptional copy.