Ada Reis, A Tale

London: John Murray, 1823 Three volumes bound into two. First edition, first printing. Finely bound in quarter brown calf, with marbled boards, and spine lettered and elaborately decorated in gilt. Fine set, with a tiny puncture and a creased lower corner to title page in Vol. I, and ownership signatures in pencil to title pages. Overall, a gorgeous and clean set. Lady Caroline Lamb's third novel, Ada Reis, follows the roguish title character, who is sold into bondage at a young age and grows to be a hard-drinking and murderous young man. He later receives a prophecy from a sorcerer that he "shall be king in another land" and his illegitimate daughter, Fiormonda, "shall wear an imperial crown." In Lamb's introduction, she writes that the book is the "simple narrative of what occurred to [Ada Reis] and his daughter, that those who read may place the awful record in their hearts and learn to worship God, and to be humble in themselves." The narrative is fictionally presented as a real manuscript that has been translated into English from Arabic, Spanish, and Inga. Lady Caroline Lamb (1785 - 1828) was a novelist best known for her debut work, Glenarvon (1816), which caused a sensation when it was published. The book featured a title character based heavily on Lord Byron, with whom Lamb had an intense affair with between March and August of 1812. . First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine.