“A PICTURE OF ENGLAND AND THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF HER CHILDREN”

NORTON, Caroline. The Child of the Islands. A Poem. London: Chapman and Hall, 1845. Royal octavo, contemporary full brown crushed morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines and boards, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $850.

First edition, splendidly bound by Rivière.

Mrs. Caroline Norton, daughter of Thomas Sheridan and grand-daughter to statesman and poet Richard Brinsley Sheridan, was devoted to the cause of those less fortunate throughout her privileged life. She addresses this poem to “the child of the islands,” the young Prince of Wales, as a plea for leadership to remedy the rift between the social classes of England. “In this poem we have a picture of England and the social condition of her children… designed to impress the future ‘ruler of the islands’ with a due sense of the wants, trials, and temptations of his humbler fellow-creatures” (Allibone, 1439). Lowndes, 1707. Bookplate.

A fine copy, beautifully bound by Rivière.