TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL

Bronte, Anne [Bell, Acton] THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL. New York: Harper, 1848. First American edition, binding A. Original black T cloth, gilt. Almost invisible strengthening of spine tips and front free end paper excised, quarter size 19th century library stamp at head of title and at page 101, and two old ink notes ("Anne Bronte" on title-page and "5333" on copyright page), but no other library marks to text or binding. An unusually attractive bright copy, despite the undestructive library marks. This very scarce edition was published the same year as the English edition and was simultaneously published in two volumes in wrappers and a single volume in cloth on July 28, 1848. The author's second novel, and her only separately published work, a story of love born, lost, and finally found (a woman's escape from an alcoholic husband), centering around the tenant, one Helen Graham, wrongly thought to be a widow, but about whom little is really known, causing her to become the subject of gossip and misunderstandings. Only three copies of the American edition in wrappers are recorded, and acceptable copies of the American edition in cloth have become very scarce --only a rebacked copy and the defective Cosmatos copy have appeared at auction in the last three decades. The English edition is nearly unobtainable in original binding (the Bradley Martin copy fetched $32,000 in 1990). Wise, p. 106. NCBEL III, 867. Smith, pp. 105-6 (binding A --of six bindings recorded). (Inventory #: 23212)