Alan Dering

London: Richard Bentley & Son, New Burlington Street, 1880. First Edition. 2 vols., 8vo (187 × 137mm), pp. [4], 258, [2]; [4], 238, [2]. Publisher's smooth russet cloth over boards with a decorative design blocked in black, lettered in gold on the spines. Light rubbing to the extremities, very light foxing and offsetting to the free endpapers; a bright, near fine set. A scarce set. Fetherstonhaugh's (née Carleton) second romantic tragedy, after Kilcorran, also published by Bentley. More precisely a sensation novel than a conventional romance, Alan Dering belongs to the later Victorian afterlife of the genre, where emotional extremity, concealed motives, and personal catastrophe remained central attractions.