(#157125) JACK SHEPPARD: A ROMANCE ... With Illustrations by George Cruikshank. William Harrison Ainsworth.

JACK SHEPPARD: A ROMANCE ... With Illustrations by George Cruikshank. London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, 1839. Octavo, three volumes: pp. [i-v] vi [vii] viii [ix-xii] [1] 2-352; [i-iii] iv [1-3] 4-292; [i-v] vi [1] 2-312 [note: in volume 1 pages [vii]-viii are "illustrations to Jack Sheppard], page [ix] is publisher's advertisements, page [x] is blank], page [xi] is a section title, and page [xii] is blank]; volume 3 has the half title with publisher's advertisement on verso as called for], inserted frontispiece (portrait of Ainsworth) and 27 inserted plates with etchings by George Cruikshank, original decorated gray-green vertically ribbed cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panels stamped in gold and blind, yellow coated endpapers, all edges untrimmed. First edition. A notorious and immensely successful Newgate novel, based on the exploits of the famous young eighteenth-century thief and prison breaker Jack Sheppard (1702-1724), who was ultimately captured and hanged at Tyburn. Cruikshank's illustrations are among his finest work for a novel. See Wolff, Strange Stories, pp. 24-6. Bleiler, ed., Supernatural Fiction Writers Fantasy and Horror, p. 189. Sadleir 14. Wolff 53. Block, The English Novel 1740-1850, p. 5. Cohn, Cruikshank 12. Cloth a little worn with skillful mends to spine ends; margins of several plates foxed, a very attractive, close to fine copy overall. (#157125).

Price: $1,000.00

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