Aristomenes: a Grecian Tale

Book Description

London: Robert Tyas, 1838. 2 vols., 8vo. Engraved frontispiece in each volume (these very slightly stained at edges), otherwise a fine copy, with the half-titles, in the original blind-stamped green pebbled cloth, upper covers and spines gilt. First edition, and as far as I can tell an unrecorded issue, without the author’s name on the titles, and without the subscribers’ list. The novel is a romance of ancient Greece, clearly inspired in more ways than one by Bulwer Lytton. It begins, “It was on a dark stormy night that a young soldier. . . .” Wolff 3203, describing the issue with the author’s name on the titles, stating him to be the author of “The Earth,” and “The Experimental Philosopher,” both of which works also appeared in 1838; Wolff also notes the list of subscribers. OCLC records three copies of the same issue as Wolff’s, at Cambridge, Texas, and UCLA. Was this copy the first issue, as seems most likely, or was the novel such a disaster that Higgins had it reissued with new titles and the subscribers’ list cancelled, to remove all evidence of authorship?

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