The Executor

London: Richard Bentley & Son, New Burlington St, 1883. First Edition. 3 vols, 8vo (188 x 137mm), pp. [4], 323, [1]; [2], 320; [4], 321, [3]. Publisher’s dark blue cloth, spine lettered in silver, gray floral endpapers. Each volume printed throughout in dark blue ink. Slightly cocked, small ownership signature in pencil on the half-titles ("G. Newman"), and very light scattered foxing at the foredges, some offsetting to the floral endpapers, rubbing to the corners and spine tips, else a bright, near fine set. Hector was a popular Victorian novelist, especially in the United States, who published over 40 novels after the death of her husband in 1875. Her plots typically revolved around a young girl torn between money, family, and love - often complicated by a legacy and a benevolent providence. A scarce, well-preserved set. OCLC locates only eight copies. Sadleir 34. Centered on Stasie Verner, a young heiress, The Executor turns on the pressures that attend money, dependence, and marriage in late-Victorian society. As competing claims gather around her, Dr. Brooke gradually uncovers a darker design beneath the novel's domestic surface, giving the story the character of both an inheritance drama and a quiet work of suspense.