In The Old Palazzo

London: F.V. White & Co., 31, Southampton St., Strand, 1885. First Edition. 3 vols., 8vo (190 x 138mm), pp. [8], 244; [8], 254, [2], [8], 236. Publisher’s taupe cloth pictorially blocked with dome of St. Peter's and lettered in gold on the front covers, gilt spines, floral-patterned endpapers. Presentation copy inscribed by the author on the half-titles of each volume, and with a contemporary pencil note (by the recipient?) on the verso of the front free endpaper. The gold on the front cover of volume one is moderately rubbed, some minor rubbing and soiling, else a bright, near fine set. Wolff 2288. Far from a routine fashionable novel, In the Old Palazzo begins with real dramatic force, juxtaposing its picturesque Italian setting with scenes of menace, suffering, and near-operatic emotional pressure. The story opens in a once-grand Roman palazzo now fallen into subdivision and decay, among artists, poverty, and old-world ruin. Its early scenes center on Annunciata and an old blind musician, whose fragile domestic world is threatened by the volatile Pippo, establishing from the outset a tale of atmosphere, violence, and pathos.