THE WIDOW ROBINSON AND OTHER SKETCHES. New York, London, Montreal: The Abbey Press Publishers, [1900]. Octavo, title page printed in red and black, original red cloth stamped in black, all edges untrimmed. First edition. Despite the book's title, this is a short novel, not a group of stories or sketches, about a mysterious, wealthy, beautiful young widow who, with her young son and servant (a female dwarf), move to a small town in Vermont in 1856. The widow is a "new woman": a freethinker, an abolitionist and a philanthropist who home-schools her son, doesn't attend church and builds homes for the poor on her property. Her behavior offends many of the village residents, and they attempt to convert her to their ways. Part reform novel, part domestic melodrama, perhaps written long before it was published. "Compliments of the Author" inked on the front free endpaper. Not in Wright, American Fiction, 1876-1900. Slight shelf lean, a fine copy. (#133562).
Price: $150.00
No statement of printing.