The Romance of Mary W. Shelley, John Howard Payne and Washington Irving. Introduction by Henry H. Harper. [With Remarks by F. B. Sanborn.] by Shelley, Mary and John Howard Payne (1797-1851) - 1907

London, United Kingdom: M J Godwin at the Juvenile Library, 1915. Printed by B McMillan, Bow Street, Covent Garden in colophon. Written by the publishers daughter, a then 10 year old Mary Godwin (Shelley) adapted a jaunty vaudeville song into a children's rhyme, ''Mounseer Nongtongpaw,'' which makes spirited fun of English bigotry and greed. Godwin published it, the first work of his prodigious child. Later research suggests a more likely author is John Taylor with the story outline being supplied by Mary. He was the author of 'Monsieur Tonson', which was also published by M J Godwin as another Juvenile Library title. CONDITION Original Pink card wraps dated 1813 to front, advertising for other Juvenile Library titles to rear (light age toning and soiling to covers, mildly rubbed to spine ends) dated 1815 to title page, pp 16 with 12 leaves of Copper plate engravings. Internally bright and clean with only the slightest age toning to page edges, original whip stitching to… Read More

London: Alfred Miller, 1830. First Illustrated Edition. Robert Cruikshank. 12mo, pp. 19. Illustrated with 6 engraved plates, with contemporary hand coloring. Bound in later 3/4 morocco and marble boards by Root and son (front cover very loose) a very clean copy. Sometimes described as her first published work this was first issued at her father and step-mother's M. J. Godwin's press in 1808 as Mounseer Nongtongpaw: a new version. A satirical poem about an Englishman in France and the linguistic misunderstandings that ensued.

New York: Wallis and Newell, 1835. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. First American edition. (Following the three volume British edition.) Two volumes in one. Bound with The Naval Officer by Frederick Marryat as issued. 228; 219pp. Period half calf and marbled boards, morocco spine label lettered in gilt. About Very Good. Small stain in upper margin of first 60 pages or so of Lodore. Crease down middle of spine, wear to edges. Some textual foxing and spotting, heaviest at Naval Officer title page and facing last page of Lodore; wrinkling to pages of Naval Officer. Published as part of the Franklin Library series but fortunately, unlike most surviving copies, not an institutional copy. The rare first American appearance of a proto-feminist novel by Mary Shelley (best-known as the author of Frankenstein) also known as The Beautiful Widow.

Edinburgh: William Blackwood, March 1823. [Literary Magazine] CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. Octavo magazine in the original grey paper wrapper. pp.[2] 263-384 [4]. Edges untrimmed. An astonishingly well-preserved example, with just the slightest of spotting to preliminaries and some light thumbing and wear to the covers. Near-fine. A rare contemporary review of Mary Shelley's historical novel concerning the Guelph and Ghibelline factions of mediaeval Florence. With her identity revealed after the publication of 'Frankenstein', the review is inevitably somewhat patronising, but it takes the book seriously and concludes it is 'on the whole, a clever novel.'. Jean de Palacio, Mary Shelley Dans Son Oe uvre (Paris: Klincksieck, 1969), pp.654-656.

London, United Kingdom: M J Godwin at the Juvenile Library, 1915. Printed by B McMillan, Bow Street, Covent Garden in colophon. Written by the publishers daughter, a then 10 year old Mary Godwin (Shelley) adapted a jaunty vaudeville song into a children's rhyme, ''Mounseer Nongtongpaw,'' which makes spirited fun of English bigotry and greed. Godwin published it, the first work of his prodigious child. Later research suggests a more likely author is John Taylor with the story outline being supplied by Mary. He was the author of 'Monsieur Tonson', which was also published by M J Godwin as another Juvenile Library title. CONDITION Original Pink card wraps dated 1813 to front, advertising for other Juvenile Library titles to rear (light age toning and soiling to covers, mildly rubbed to spine ends) dated 1815 to title page, pp 16 with 12 leaves of Copper plate engravings. Internally bright and clean with only the slightest age toning to page edges, original whip stitching to… Read More

London: Alfred Miller, 1830. First Illustrated Edition. Robert Cruikshank. 12mo, pp. 19. Illustrated with 6 engraved plates, with contemporary hand coloring. Bound in later 3/4 morocco and marble boards by Root and son (front cover very loose) a very clean copy. Sometimes described as her first published work this was first issued at her father and step-mother's M. J. Godwin's press in 1808 as Mounseer Nongtongpaw: a new version. A satirical poem about an Englishman in France and the linguistic misunderstandings that ensued.

New York: Wallis and Newell, 1835. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. First American edition. (Following the three volume British edition.) Two volumes in one. Bound with The Naval Officer by Frederick Marryat as issued. 228; 219pp. Period half calf and marbled boards, morocco spine label lettered in gilt. About Very Good. Small stain in upper margin of first 60 pages or so of Lodore. Crease down middle of spine, wear to edges. Some textual foxing and spotting, heaviest at Naval Officer title page and facing last page of Lodore; wrinkling to pages of Naval Officer. Published as part of the Franklin Library series but fortunately, unlike most surviving copies, not an institutional copy. The rare first American appearance of a proto-feminist novel by Mary Shelley (best-known as the author of Frankenstein) also known as The Beautiful Widow.

Edinburgh: William Blackwood, March 1823. [Literary Magazine] CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. Octavo magazine in the original grey paper wrapper. pp.[2] 263-384 [4]. Edges untrimmed. An astonishingly well-preserved example, with just the slightest of spotting to preliminaries and some light thumbing and wear to the covers. Near-fine. A rare contemporary review of Mary Shelley's historical novel concerning the Guelph and Ghibelline factions of mediaeval Florence. With her identity revealed after the publication of 'Frankenstein', the review is inevitably somewhat patronising, but it takes the book seriously and concludes it is 'on the whole, a clever novel.'. Jean de Palacio, Mary Shelley Dans Son Oe uvre (Paris: Klincksieck, 1969), pp.654-656.