Ivanhoe; a Romance. by SCOTT, Sir Walter - 1820

Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co.,, 1820. Scott's masterpiece, in contemporary boards First edition, first issue of Scott's great historical novel, presented in contemporary boards. The work is one of the author's most popular and influential Waverley novels and led to an early Victorian revival of interest in the Middle Ages together with the legends of Robin Hood and Richard the Lionheart. Greville Worthington, in his bibliography of the Waverley novels, notes that there are two states of the first edition and provides a list of 14 points as follows: p. [iii] bears the forme-mark "9"; p. iv, line 6 the first word is "Peter"; p. v, line 12 the third word is "which"; p. v bears the forme-mark "6"; p. vi, line 14 the first word is "observed"; p. ix, line 1 there is no comma after "fought"; p. xii, line 5 there is no comma after "people"; p. xv, line 3 the sixth word is "toilsome"; p. xvi, line 20 the first word is "ton"; p. xvi there is no forme-mark; p. xix there is no forme-mark; p. xxiv there is no forme-mark; p. xxix, line 1 there is a comma after "paste" and p. xxx bears the forme-mark "12". The present copy conforms with all these points assuming that Worthington's third point is that the third complete word on line 12 is "which". "Ivanhoe is essentially a moral work. It is an intense consideration of misogyny and racial oppression, in which the attempted rape of Rebecca the Jewess by the dominant figure of the Norman master race, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, is a powerful symbol of the themes of the novel. Ivanhoe may be set in a distant period, but it has a political modernity which makes it one of the most remarkable novels of the nineteenth century" (ODNB). 3 volumes, octavo (176 x 109 mm). Contemporary boards (greenish blue for vols. 1 and 2, brown for vol. 3), rebacked retaining original labels. With half-titles, publisher's 4pp. advertisements to front vol. 1, publisher's 3pp. advertisements to rear of vol. 3. Housed in a custom brown cloth box. Contemporary signature and date to title page and first page of text in vol. 1, together with ownership signature to front free endpaper of vol. 2. Boards somewhat soiled and worn at extremities with minor loss to spine labels and lacking rear free endpaper of vol. 1, rear joint of vol. 3 split. Occasional dampstaining and foxing, some marginal stains and tears, some dampstaining to box; a good copy. Waddington 8; Todd & Bowden 140Aa.