Barchester Towers by TROLLOPE, Anthony

London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857. A Remarkably Nice Copy In The Original Cloth TROLLOPE, Anthony. Barchester Towers. In Three Volumes. Vol. I. [II. III.] London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857. First edition, first issue (with "tattooed" for "tabooed" on page 269, line 24 in the second volume). Three octavo volumes (7 11/16 x 4 3/4 inches: 196 x 121 mm.) [i-vii]viii, [1]2-305[-308]; [i-iii]iv,[1]2-299[300]; [i-iii]iv, [1]2-321[-324]. No half-titles called for in Vols. ll and lll. Advertisement leaf for The Warden preceding half-title and two pages of publisher's ads at end of vol. 1; One leaf of publisher's advertisements at end of vol. 3; half-title in vol. 1 only, as called for. Publishers first issue binding of original light brown cloth, uniform with The Warden, decoratively panelled in blind on the boards, spines ruled in blind and lettered in gilt. Original brick red endpapers with the requisite advertisements on the front and back paste-downs as per the first binding-up of the sheets. Small tear (just over one inch) to the upper margin of the advertisement leaf in vol. 1 for The Warden (not affecting text). The inner hinges on all three volumes have been expertly repaired and the spine ends strengthened (not repaired). A few corners lightly bumped, some with the board just showing through. The spines are very slightly and uniformly faded. Overall, a near fine and remarkably nice copy of this very early and extremely important Trollope novel, the second of the Barsetshire novels, the series which established and defined his early career. Rare in the original cloth, particularly so in the first issue binding. Sotheby's New York sold the Frederick R. Jones; Michael Sadleir; Bradley Martin copy in May 1990 for $18,700. The set was near fine and un-touched -but it was in the 'secondary binding' with 'brown' endpapers, no advertisement for The Warden, and a 24-page publisher's catalog at the end dated October 1860. The second novel in Trollope's Barsetshire series, only his fifth novel overall, and his best known novel. Not all the copies were initially bound up. The earliest ones can be distinguished by the brick-red endpapers and presence of the publisher's ads, all present here. In later issues the advertisement for The Warden in volume one was often excised, and the endpapers were brown. The endpapers in this copy are all brick-red with advertisements for "Books on Natural History, Botany, &c." on the front paste-downs and advertisements for "Works on the Arts, Manufactures, and Architecture" on the rear paste-downs. The rear paste-down of volume 1 on this set bears the binder's ticket of well known firm of Westleys Co., London. Barchester Towers (1857) is the second in the series of novels known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, which include The Warden (1855), Barchester Towers (1857), Doctor Thorne (1858), Framley Parsonage (1861), The Small House at Allington (1864), and The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867). Barchester Towers is possibly Trollope's best known work. Among other things it satirizes the then raging antipathy in the Church of England between High Church and Evangelical adherents. Sadleir, Trollope, 5; Wolff 6766: NCBEL III, 882.