THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF MICHAEL ARMSTRONG, THE FACTORY BOY. London: Henry Colburn, Great Marlborough-street, Bell and Bradfute, Edinburgh, John Cumming, Dublin, 1840. Octavo, pp. [i-iii] iv [v] vi-viii [1] 2-387 [388: blank], 24 inserted plates with illustrations by A. Hervieu, R. W. Buss, and J. Onwhyn, nineteenth-century three-quarter polished calf and marbled boards, all edges marbled, marbled endpapers. First one-volume book edition. Preceded by a March 1839-February 1840 issue in twelve parts and a three-volume edition published by Colburn in December 1839 (dated 1840). "With the exactly contemporary HELEN FLEETWOOD by C. E. Tonna, the pioneer 'industrial novel' of the early 1840s." - Sutherland, Victorian Fiction, p. 432. Mrs. Trollope (1779-1863), mother of Anthony, wrote thirty-five novels. "Her early novels, powerful and coarse by the standards of the time [the 1830s] were attacked by the critics. In 1839 "she took on Dickens himself with a social problem novel in numbers, MICHAEL ARMSTRONG, THE FACTORY BOY (for which Colburn paid £1,000). This scathing attack on industrialism, together with her other monthly serial, JESSIE PHILLIPS (1843) attracted the now customary accusations of unwomanly conduct. The critics were of course, wrong. The period 1839-1846 represents the high-point of Trollope's writing career." - Ibid., pp. 637-639. Sadleir 3228b. Wolff 6818b. 23 x 35 mm v-chip from upper spine end, but a good, sound copy with fine interior. (#162787).
Price: $450.00
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