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Peter Garside taught English Literature for more than thirty years at Cardiff University, where he became Director of the Centre for Editorial and Intertextual Research. Subsequently, he was appointed Professor of Bibliography and Textual Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He served on the Boards of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels and the Stirling / South Carolina Collected Edition of the Works of James Hogg, and has produced three volumes apiece for each of these scholarly editions. He was one of the general editors of the bibliographical survey The English Novel 1770–1829, 2 vols (Oxford University Press, 2000), and directed the AHRB-funded online database British Fiction 1800–1829 (2004). More recently, he has co-edited English and British Fiction 1750–1820 (2015), as volume 2 of the Oxford History of the Novel in English; as well as an edition of Scott’s Shorter Poems (2020), along with Gillian Hughes, for the Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott’s Poetry.

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Sharon Ragaz »

Copyright Information

This article is © 2020 The Authors and is the result of the independent labour of the scholars credited with authorship. Unless otherwise noted, the material contained in this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) International License.
Date of acceptance: 1 August 2020.

Referring to this Article

P. D. GARSIDE, with S. A. RAGAZ, A. A. MANDAL, and J. E. BELANGER. 'The English Novel, 1800–1829 and 1830–1836: Update 7 (August 2009–July 2020)', Romantic Textualities: Literature and Print Culture, 1780–1840, 23 (Summer 2020)

Online: Internet (date accessed): https://www.romtext.org.uk/reports/engnov7/
PDF DOI:10.18573/romtext.82

The English Novel, 1800–1829 & 1830–1836

Update 7 (August 2009–July 2020)

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This report, like its predecessors, relates primarily to the second volume of The English Novel, 1770–1829: A Bibliographical Survey of Prose Fiction Published in the British Isles (Oxford: OUP, 2000) [EN2], co-edited by Peter Garside and Rainer Schöwerling, with the assistance of Christopher Skelton-Foord and Karin Wünsche. It also refers to the online The English Novel, 1830–36: A Bibliographical Survey of Fiction Published in the British Isles [EN3], which effectively serves as a continuation of the printed Bibliography.

This report, like its predecessors, relates primarily to the second volume of The English Novel, 1770–1829: A Bibliographical Survey of Prose Fiction Published in the British Isles (Oxford: OUP, 2000) [EN2], co-edited by Peter Garside and Rainer Schöwerling, with the assistance of Christopher Skelton-Foord and Karin Wünsche. It also refers to the online The English Novel, 1830–36: A Bibliographical Survey of Fiction Published in the British Isles [EN3] <http://www.romtext.org.uk/resources/english-novel-1830-36/>, which effectively serves as a continuation of the printed Bibliography. The procedure followed derives generally from the activities of the research team who helped produce British Fiction 1800–1829: A Database of Production, Circulation & Reception [DBF] <www.british-fiction.cf.ac.uk>, first made publicly available in 2004, though only materials found in Updates 1–4 are incorporated in that database. The present report was concluded some sixteen years after the original launch of DBF, and covers a period of over ten years since Update 6. It is hoped in the near future to provide a composite Update 8 incorporating material from all previous Updates, and marking the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the printed Bibliography.

IndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentThe entries below are organised in a way that matches the order of material as supplied in the English Novel, 1770–1829. Although making reference to any relevant changes that may have occurred in previous Updates, the main ‘base’ it refers to is the printed Bibliography and not the preceding reports or the online database. Sections A and B concern authorship, the first of these proposing changes to the attributions as given in the printed Bibliography, and the second recording the discovery of information of interest that has nevertheless not led to substantively new attributions. Section C includes four additional novels, which appear to match the criteria for inclusion and should ideally have been entered into the main listings in the printed Bibliography. Section D lists three titles already in the Bibliography for which a surviving copy could not previously be located, while section E provides additional information about existing entries such as is usually found in the Notes field of entries. The final section (F) notes the discovery of two hitherto unrecorded subsequent issues. As previously, those owning copies of the printed Biblio­graphy might wish to amend entries accordingly. An element of colour coding has been used to facilitate recognition of the nature of changes, with red denoting revisions and additions to existing entries in the Bibliography and additional titles discovered being picked out in blue. Reference numbers (e.g. 1801: 60) are the same as those in the English Novel, 1770–1829 and its 1830–36 online continuation; those given in bold refer to entries provided inthe present Update. Abbreviations generally match those listed at the beginning of volume 2 of the English Novel.

IndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentIndentThis report was prepared by Peter Garside, with inputs from Anthony Mandal and Sharon Ragaz, as well as help from a number of outside informants, including Robert Betteridge, James Burmester, Laura K. O’Keefe, Edward Pope, James Raven, John Robertshaw, Yael Shapira and Susan Valladares. Further information is always welcome, and the main reporter can be contacted by email at petergarside1@virginmedia.com.

A: Changed Author/Translator Attribution

1800: 41
[KELLY, Isabella].
EDWARDINA, A NOVEL. IN TWO VOLUMES. DEDICATED TO MRS. SOUTER JOHNSTON. BY CATHERINE HARRIS.
London: Printed for the Author, at the Minerva-Press, by William Lane, Leadenhall-Street, 1800.
I iv, 229p; II 263p. 12mo. 7s (Bent03); 6s 6d boards (CR).
CR 2nd ser. 31: 354-5 (Mar 1801).
Corvey; CME 3-628-47629-1; EM 1005: 14; ESTC n003448 (NA CtY-BR, MH-H, PU &c.).
Notes: ‘List of Subscribers’ (4 pp. unn.) at beginning of vol. 1, including 60 names. The Orlando database attributes this title to Isabella Kelly, on the basis that she told the Royal Literary Fund that she was the author. Kelly herself appears under the name Hedgeland in the RLF archives, Case 632, and ‘2 Vol: Edwardina 1810’ features in a list of her works appended to an appeal to the RLF in August 1832 (item 10). Alongside this entry is also added in the same hand ‘Written in the name of Miss Harris to benefit her in dis[tress]’. Notwithstanding the apparent misdating of 1810, the number of volumes matches, and mention of the work having been written in the name of Harris unmistakeably connects it with the present novel. The presence of a ‘Mrs. Kelly’ in the subscription list is also intriguing, and comparison with the similarly sized list in Kelly’s acknowledged Ruthinglenne (1801: 37) indicates support from similar social circles. Yael Shapira’s article, ‘Isabella Kelly and the Minerva Gothic Challenge’, in this same issue of Romantic Textualities, points to the similarity between the engagement with the Gothic in this title and a number of other novels by Kelly written for the Minerva Press.

1800: 55
[MEEKE, Elizabeth].
anecdotes of the altamont family. a novel. in four volumes. by the author of the sicilian, &c.
London: Printed at the Minerva-Press, for William Lane, Leadenhall-Street, 1800.
I 250p; II 266p; III 306p; IV 365p. 12mo. 16s (Bent03).
Corvey; CME 3-628-47059-5; EM 221: 1; ESTC t089386 (BI BL; NA NjP).
Notes: Now attributed to Elizabeth Meeke, a step-sister of Frances Burney, following conclusive arguments offered by Simon Macdonald, in ‘Identifying Mrs Meeke: Another Burney Family Novelist’, Review of English Studies, n.s. 64:265 (2013), 367–85. This replaces the previous identification of Mary Meeke, the wife of a Staffordshire clergyman, whose death in 1816 preceded the conclusion of the prolific output of this novelist. [Similar alterations to Meeke’s forename are required, with a cross-reference to the updated Notes to 1800: 55, in the case of the following original novels: 1801: 50, 51; 1802: 42, 43; 1804: 46, 47, 48, 49; 1805: 53; 1806: 46; 1808: 77; 1809: 48; 1811: 53; 1812: 48; 1814: 40; 1815: 36; 1819: 48; 1823: 63. The same applies to translations by Meeke at 1803: 28; 1804: 34; 1807: 15, 22.]

1804: 18
GENLIS, [Stéphanie-Félicité, Comtesse] de; [?HALL, Agnes Crombie (trans.); or ?LENNOX, Charles (trans.)].
THE DUCHESS OF LA VALLIERE. AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE. BY MADAME DE GENLIS. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. IN TWO VOLUMES.
London: Printed for John Murray, No. 32, Fleet-Street, 1804.
I xxxv, 264p; II 319p. 12mo. 8s boards (CR); 10s 6d sewed (ER); 10s 6d (ECB); 9s boards (ER).
CR 3rd ser. 3: 239 (Oct 1804); ER 4: 498 (July 1804), 5: 252 (Oct 1804); WSW I: 239–40.
CtY-BR Hfd29.351.V; ECB 225; xNSTC.
Notes: Trans. of La Duchesse de la Vallière (Paris, 1804). ECB and ER both state translated by Charles Lennox. Translator is also identified by Summers as Charles Lennox. This work however is listed by Agnes Crombie Hall as one of her translations in a list submitted to the Royal Literary Fund in 1843 (Case 555, item 46). This would seem to be supported by record of a payment to ‘Mrs Hall’ of £31.10s relating to this publication in a Divide Ledger Entry of 9 June 1804 in the Murray Archives (National Library of Scotland, MS 42724, p. 17). DBF 1804A018 wrongly transcribes this as Mr Hall. For fuller details on Agnes Crombie Hall, and her probable use of Rosalia St. Clair as a pseudonym for original novels, see updated Notes to 1819: 59. Preface is evidently Genlis’s own, and no indication is given there of translator.

1805: 42
LAFONTAINE, August [Heinrich Julius]; [HALL, Agnes Crombie (trans.)].
DOLGORUCKI AND MENZIKOF. A RUSSIAN TALE. IN TWO VOLUMES. FROM THE GERMAN OF AUGUSTUS LA FONTAINE.
London: Printed at the Minerva-Press, for Lane, Newman, and Co. Leadenhall-Street, 1805.
I 314p; II 305p. 12mo. 8s sewed (ER); 8s (ECB).
ER 5: 501 (Jan 1805).
BL 12554.aa.38; ECB 326; NSTC L148.
Notes: Trans. of Fedor und Marie, oder Treue bis zum Tode (Berlin, 1802). ECB dates Nov 1804. Listed as one of her translations by Agnes Crombie Hall in an appeal to the Royal Literary Fund in 1843 (Case 555, item 46). For further information on Mrs Hall, and her probable use of the Rosalia St. Clair pseudonym for original fiction, see updated Notes to 1819: 59.

1805: 43
LAFONTAINE, August [Heinrich Julius]; [HALL, Agnes Crombie (trans.)].
HERMANN AND EMILIA, A NOVEL. FROM THE GERMAN OF AUGUSTUS LA FONTAINE. IN FOUR VOLUMES.
London: Printed at the Minerva Press, for Lane, Newman, and Co. Leadenhall-Street, 1805.
I vii, 311p; II 344p; III 265p; IV 240p. 12mo.
NNS, Ham L1659 H3; xNSTC.
Notes: Trans. of Herrmann et Emilie, traduit de l’allemande (Paris, 1802), original German title Herrmann Lange (Berlin, 1799). Literary Journal, September 1805, p. 1002, gives price as 18s and comments: ‘This is said to be a translation from the German of Augustus La Fontaine, who, if everything be his that is laid to his charge, must be allowed to be a most indefatigable novel writer.’ Listed as one of her translations by Agnes Crombie Hall in an appeal to the Royal Literary Fund in 1843 (Case 555, item 46). For further information on Mrs Hall, and her probable use of the Rosalia St. Clair pseudonym for original fiction, see updated Notes to 1819: 59. Copy (previously not located) from the Hammond Collection, New York Society Library.

1808: 79
[MONTOLIEU, Jeanne-Isabelle-Pauline Polier de Bottens, Baronne de; [HALL, Agnes Crombie (trans.)].
CHRISTINA; OR, MEMOIRS OF A GERMAN PRINCESS. BY THE AUTHOR OF CAROLINE OF LICHTFIELD. IN TWO VOLUMES.
London: Printed for Henry Colburn, Conduit-Street, New Bond-Street, 1808.
I 208p; II 272p. 12mo. 10s (ECB); 9s (ER).
CR 3rd ser. 13: 443 (Apr 1808); ER 11: 504 (Jan 1808).
Corvey; CME 3-628-47282-2; ECB 114; NSTC M2956 (BI BL).
Notes: Trans. of. La Princesse de Wolfenbuttel (Paris, 1807), itself based on Johann Heinrich Daniel Zschokke’s Die Prinzessin von Wolfenbüttel (Zurich, 1804). ECB dates Nov 1807. Included (as ‘Christina of Wolfenbuttle’) in a list of her translations by Agnes Crombie Hall in an appeal to the Royal Literary Fund in 1843 (Case 555, item 46). For further information on Mrs Hall, and her probable use of the Rosalia St. Clair pseudonym for original fiction, see updated Notes to 1819: 59.
Further edn: 2nd edn. 1809 (NSTC).

1809: 27
GENLIS, [Stéphanie-Félicité, Comtesse] de; [HALL, Agnes Crombie (trans.)].
ALPHONSO; OR, THE NATURAL SON. BY MADME. DE GENLIS, AUTHOR OF SAINCLAIR, THE SIEGE OF ROCHELLE, THE RECOLLECTIONS OF FELICIA, THE EARL OF CORK, &C. &C. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. IN THREE VOLUMES.
London: Printed for Henry Colburn, English and Foreign Library, Conduit-Street, Bond-Street, 1809.
I iv, 174p; II 183p; III 190p. 12mo. 13s 6d (ECB, ER, QR).
ER 15: 242 (Oct 1809); QR 3: 267 (Feb 1810).
BL 12511.c.20; ECB 225; NSTC B4973.
Notes: Trans. of Alphonse, ou le fils naturel (Paris, 1809). In a letter of 22 May 1810 to the Royal Literary Fund (Case 223, item 7) Agnes Crombie Hall refers to ‘the Alphonso of M. Genlis’ as one of two novels translated by her for Mr Colburn, and for which she receives ‘about 10/6 the English sheet’. The other translation mentioned is ‘the Convent [sic] of St Ursula’ (see 1810: 39 below). Also listed as one of her translations by Hall in an appeal to the Royal Literary Fund in 1843 (Case 555, item 46). For further information on Mrs Hall, and her probable use of the Rosalia St. Clair pseudonym for original fiction, see updated Notes to 1819: 59.

1810: 39
[DUCRAY-DUMINIL, François-Guillaume]; [HALL, Agnes Crombie (trans.)].
THE NOVICE OF SAINT URSULA. BY THE AUTHOR OF “A TALE OF MYSTERY,” “JEANNETTE,” &C. IN FOUR VOLUMES.
London: Printed for Henry Colburn, English and Foreign Public Library, Conduit-Street, New Bond-Street, 1810.
I 224p; II 232p; III 264p; IV 205p. 12mo. 21s (ECB, ER, QR).
ER 16: 259 (Apr 1810), 16: 510 (Aug 1810); QR 4: 277 (Aug 1810).
IU 845.D856.OnE; ECB 173; xNSTC.
Notes: French original not discovered. Drop-head title reads: ‘Elvina, or the Novice of Saint Ursula’ [misspelt Ursulu in vol. 1]. QR lists as ‘The Novice of St. Ursula, or Elvina’. In a letter of 22 May 1810 to the Royal Literary Fund (Case 223, item 7) Agnes Crombie Hall refers to ‘the Convent [sic] of St Ursula’ as one of two novels translated by her for Mr Colburn, and for which she receives ‘about 10/6 the English sheet’. The other translation mentioned is ‘the Alphonso of M. Genlis’ (see 1809: 27 above). For further information on Mrs Hall, and her probable use of the Rosalia St. Clair pseudonym for original fiction, see updated Notes to 1819: 59.

1817: 11
[JERDAN, William and NUGENT, Michael].
SIX WEEKS AT LONG’S. BY A LATE RESIDENT. IN THREE VOLUMES.
LONDON: Printed for the Author; and sold by all Booksellers, 1817.
I xii, 235p; II 230p; III 226p. 12mo. 21s (ECB, QR).
ER 28: 268 (Mar 1817); QR 16: 557 (Jan 1817); WSW I: 143.
O 12.Õ.1841-1843; ECB 540; NSTC 2B9426.
Notes: Previously attributed to Eaton Stannard Barrett, but acknowledged otherwise in The Autobiography of William Jerdan, vol. 2 (London, 1852): ‘At this period the satirical novel called “Six Weeks at Long’s”, in the doing of which … I had a hand with Michael Nugent … was published’ (pp. 176–77). This new attribution is referred to by Gary Dyer in his British Satire and the Politics of Style (Cambridge, 1997), p. 189, n. 23, and mentioned by him again in ‘Parody and Satire in the Novel, 1770–1832’ in The Oxford Handbook of the Eighteenth-Century Novel, ed. J. A. Downie (Oxford, 2016), p. 577. Contains portraits of contemporary literary figures: Lord Leander (Byron) is first encountered reading Scott. ECB lists as ‘Six weeks at Long’s Hotel’, and gives Colburn as publisher; but not discovered in either form.
Further edns: 2nd edn. 1817 (Corvey), CME 3-628-48750-1; 3rd edn. 1817 (NSTC).

1817: 23
Ducray-Dum[i]nil, [François-Guillaume]; [HALL, Agnes Crombie (trans.)].
THE BLIND BEGGAR; OR THE FOUNTAIN OF ST. CATHERINE. A NOVEL. IN FOUR VOLUMES. BY DUCRAY DUMENIL, AUTHOR OF JULIEN, OR MY FATHER’S HOUSE; LITTLE CHIMER; TALE OF MYSTERY; VICTOR, OR CHILD OF THE FOREST, &C. &C.
LONDON: Printed at the Minerva Press for A. K. Newman and Co. Leadenhall-Street, 1817.
I 263p; II 240p; III 291p; IV 280p. 12mo. 22s (ECB).
Corvey; CME 3-628-47492-2; ECB 61; NSTC 2D21007 (BI BL, C).
Notes: Trans. of La Fontaine Sainte-Catherine (Paris, 1813). Previously entered as a translation by Rosalia St. Clair [pseud.], on the grounds of an attribution in the title of The Son of O’Donnel (1819: 59). Identification of Mrs Hall as the probable user of the St. Clair pseudonym (see updated Notes to 1819: 59 below) makes it possible to disclose the real name of the translator. The omission of this title among a list of her translations in an appeal to the Royal Literary Fund in 1843 (Case 555, item 46) is probably the result of an oversight. This is the last of seven translations of fiction now directly attributable to Hall.

1819: 47
[GILLIES, Robert Pierce].
OLD TAPESTRY; A TALE OF REAL LIFE. IN TWO VOLUMES.
Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for W. and C. Tait, Prince’s Street; and G. and W. B. Whittaker, Ave-Maria-Lane, London, 1819.
I xiii, 325p; II 319p. 12mo. 12s (ECB, ER, QR).
ER 31: 556 (Mar 1819); QR 21: 268 (Jan 1819).
Corvey; CME 3-628-48253-4; ECB 422; NSTC 2M18581 (BI BL, C, E, O).
Notes: Dedication ‘to Flint Popham, Esq.’, signed ‘M. W. M. Brazen-Nose College,’ Oxford, Mar 1819. Normally attributed to M.W.Maskell, matching the initials of the Dedication. This title, however, was claimed as Gillies’s at least twice during appeals to the Royal Literary Fund. ‘Old Tapestry. A Novel. 2 vols. 1816 [sic]’ features in a ‘List of Works’ sent as part of an appeal in April 1838 (Case 708, item 5); and again as part of a completed list of ‘Titles of Published Works’ on a form dated 2 January 1850, this time as ‘Old Tapestry a Novel—12mo. Edinb. 1819’ (Case 708, item 19). The Edinburgh manufacture and management of the work also accords with Gillies’s career. Further to the above sentences, which led to a qualified attribution to Gillies in Update 5, further information has come to light making his authorship more certain. A primary factor here is the presence of a copy in the Abbotsford Library inscribed in Gillies’s hand on the front endpaper of vol. 1: ‘Walter Scott Esqr. From the Author’. Following on from the adulation exhibited in Gillies’s preceding novel, The Confessions of Sir Henry Longueville (1814: 23), Scott is picked out in one conversation as the sole true genius living in Edinburgh (1.98–99). Elsewhere reference is made to the German writer Wieland (1.125), reflecting Gillies’s own interests; Blackwood Magazine (1.160), for which he was a major contributor; and the poetry writing of a would-be lawyer character living (like Scott) in Castle Street (2.259, 278). With this new evidence, it seems appropriate to remove the question mark from the author line as it appeared in Update 5. [A fuller account of Gillies’s literary career and publications, ‘Shadow and Substance: Restoring the Literary Output of Robert Pearse Gillies (1789–1858)’, by the present reporter, will be appearing in Romantic Textualities, 24 (Summer 2020).]

1819: 59
[HALL, Agnes Crombie].
THE SON OF O’DONNEL. A NOVEL. IN THREE VOLUMES. BY ROSALIA ST. CLAIR, AUTHOR OF THE BLIND BEGGAR, &C. &C.
LONDON: Printed at the Minerva Press for A. K. Newman and Co. Leadenhall-Street, 1819.
I 220p; II 215p; III 244p. 12mo. 16s 6d (ECB).
Corvey; CME 3-628-48501-0; ECB 511; NSTC 2S2000 (BI BL).
Notes: The first of 12 original novels listed by Agnes Crombie Hall (d. 1846) in an appeal to the Royal Literary Fund in 1843 (Case 555, item 46), all but the last of which appeared under the pseudonym of Rosalia St. Clair and all of which were published by A. K. Newman. Agnes Hall was a native of Roxburghshire and wife (then widow) to the surgeon and medical writer Robert Hall (1763–1824), who likewise made a sequence of appeals to the Fund from 1808 up to his death. Some leeway perhaps ought to be allowed to the possibility that in making her appeal Hall had falsely appropriated the output of another author, but this would seem out of keeping with the general accuracy of her other claims. Mrs A. C. Hall is specifically associated with two novels written as by St. Clair in an obituary published in the Gentleman’s Magazine for January 1847: ‘Among many original novels and romances, all inculcating the purest morals, and the most patriotic and virtuous principles, we may mention one founded on the Massacre of Glencoe [see The Doomed One (1832: 72)]; and First and Last Years of Wedded Life [see 1827: 59], which exhibits an intimate acquaintance with political economy,—the state of Ireland—her evils, and their safest remedies. The scene was laid during George IV’s visit to Ireland’ (vol. 27, p. 98). The use of Rosalia St. Clair as a pseudonym is also noted in M. Clare Loughlin-Chow’s entry on Agnes C. Hall in ODNB, first published in 2004; and she is acknowledged as the underlying author in Anne Frey’s ‘The National Tale and the Pseudonymous Author: Mobile Identity in the “Rosalia St. Clair” Novels’, European Romantic Review, 25:2 (2014), 181–99 <https://doi.org/10.1080/10509585.2014.882049>. In addition to the above it is perhaps worth noting that an appeal after her death made to RLF on behalf of her daughter makes the claim that an element of co-authorship existed between the two: ‘For the last twenty years of her mother’s life Miss Hall aided her literary labours, and was joint authoress with her mother of several of the novels which appeared with her mother’s name, or rather as her mother’s work, for they were published under fictitious names’ (Tom Taylor to Octavian Blewitt, 1 June 1855: Case 223, item 25). [Similar alterations to the author attribution are required in the case of the following original novels: 1820: 61; 1822: 65; 1824: 81; 1827: 58, 59; 1828, 69; 1829: 69; 1830: 94; 1831: 61; 1832: 72. In each case, the following should be added at the start of the Notes field: ‘Listed by Agnes Crombie Hall as an original novel by her in an appeal to the Royal Literary Fund of 1843 (Case 555, item 46). For further details of Hall, and her probable use of the Rosalia St. Clair pseudonym, see updated Notes to 1819: 59.’]

1821: 25
[HALL, Agnes (Miss)].
THE MIDNIGHT WANDERER; OR A LEGEND OF THE HOUSES OF ALTENBERG AND LINDENDORF. A ROMANCE. IN FOUR VOLUMES. BY MARGARET CAMPBELL.
London: Printed for A. K. Newman and Co. Leadenhall-Street, 1821.
I 227p; II 224p; III 222p; IV 257p. 12mo. 22s (ECB, ER, QR).
ER 35: 266 (Mar 1821), 36: 280 (Oct 1821); QR 24: 571 (Jan 1821).
Corvey; CME 3-628-47209-1; ECB 95; NSTC 2C4895 (BI BL, C).
Notes: A free trans. of Alexina, ou la vieille tour du château de Holdheim (Paris 1813), by Mme. Louise Marguerite Brayer de Saint-Léon (Summers). NUC (but not NSTC) catalogues The Midnight Wanderer under Brayer de Saint-Léon’s authorship. According to a letter of appeal to the Royal Literary Fund, work on this title derived singly from Agnes Hall, daughter of Agnes Crombie Hall: ‘Miss Hall herself is the authoress of a novel in 3 vols. called “the Midnight Wanderer”, published under the name of Margaret Campbell, by Newman’ (Tom Taylor to Octavian Blewitt, 1 June 1855: Case 223, item 25). For fuller details on Agnes Crombie Hall, and her probable use of Rosalia St. Clair as a pseudonym for original novels, see updated Notes to 1819: 59 above.
Further edn: According to a note in BN, this work was re-translated into French as a work by Ann Radcliffe under the title of Rose d’Alternberg, ou le spectre dans les ruines (Paris, 1830).

1834: 66
[HALL, Agnes Crombie].
THE PAUPER BOY; OR, THE UPS AND DOWNS OF LIFE. A NOVEL. BY ROSALIA ST. CLAIR, AUTHOR OF BANKER’S DAUGHTERS OF BRISTOL; FIRST AND LAST YEARS OF WEDDED LIFE; ELEANOR OGILVIE; ULRICA OF SAXONY; SON OF O’DONNEL; SOLDIER BOY; SAILOR BOY; FASHIONABLES AND UNFASHIONABLES; CLAVERING TOWER; DOOMED ONE; &C. IN THREE VOLUMES.
London: Printed for A. K. Newman and Co., 1834.
I 287p; II 296p; III 314p. 12mo. 18s (ECB).
ECB 511 (June 1834).
Corvey; CME 3-628-48498-7; NSTC 2S1998 (BI BL, O); xOCLC.
Notes. Previously listed under ‘ST. CLAIR, Rosalia [pseud.]’. For identification of Agnes Crombie Hall as the author underlying this pseudonym, see updated Notes to 1819: 59 above. Unlike all the preceding novels using the pseudonym, this title is not listed by Hall in her appeal to the Royal Literary Fund of 1843 (Case 555, item 46). However the novels given in the present title as works by the same author, as well as the publisher, make its provenance clear. List of ‘New Publications’ (1 p. unn.) at end of vol. 1. Printer’s marks and colophons of J. Darling, Leadenhall Street.

B: New Information Relating to Authorship, but not Presently Leading to Substantive Attribution Changes

1808: 33 BYRON, [‘Medora Gordon’], THE ENGLISH-WOMAN. A NOVEL. The Orlando database tentatively lists Julia Maria Byron (1782–1858) as the possible author of the chain of novels by ‘Miss Byron’, noting also the apparent link of those published as by ‘A Modern Antique’. This claim is repeated in Quaritch Catalogue, 1442 (2020), itemizing a copy of the 3rd edn. of Celia in Search of a Husband (1809: 15 below). According to the commentary there, it ‘seems unlikely’ that a person named Medora Gordon Byron existed, but that Miss Byron may however be ‘Julia Maria Byron (later Heath) cousin of the poet and niece of Robert Charles Dallas’. The NYPL Archives & Manuscripts website lists two autograph letters of Julia Maria Byron in the Pforzheimer Collection, the second to R. C. Dallas, signed 9 April 1812, discussing Cantos I–II of Childe Harold. In its entry it also describes her as first cousin to Lord Byron, and states that in May 1816 she married Revd Robert Heath, Fellow in St. John’s College, Oxford University. Further information about Julia Maria Byron, and more particularly evidence of any literary output, are however needed before making a positive attribution. With this secured, authorship adjustments would also be required for items 1809: 15; 1809: 16; 1810: 30; 1812: 26; 1814: 15; 1815: 18; and 1816: 21.

1808: 41 DOHERTY, [Ann], RONALDSHA; A ROMANCE. Further information on the author can be found in a note on her from the Romantic Circles edition of Southey’s letters, in relation to the following letter: https://romantic-circles.org/editions/southey_letters/Part_Six/HTML/letterEEd.26.3616.html. Under the heading of ‘Attersoll, Ann [also known as Ann Holmes, Ann Hunter, Ann Doherty, Ann de la Piguliere] (c. 1786–1831/1832)’ it reads: ‘Daughter of Thomas Holmes (1751–1827), a wealthy East India merchant, who changed his name to Hunter on inheriting the Gobions estate in Hertfordshire in 1802 from his wife’s grandfather. The same year, Ann Holmes eloped, aged sixteen, with Hugh Doherty, an impecunious thirty-year-old Irishman and officer in the Light Dragoons. Their marriage soon broke down, and Doherty published his account of events in The Discovery (1807). This revealed how, in an attempt to prevent the elopement, Ann had been confined by her parents in a ‘madhouse’, from which he had helped her escape. After her separation from her husband, Ann Doherty (as she was then known) published a number of novels, including Ronaldsha (1808), The Castles of Wolfnorth and Mont Eagle (1812) and The Knight of the Glen (1815). Her personal life remained complex. In 1811 Hugh Doherty successfully sued the architect Philip William Wyatt (d. 1835) for ‘criminal conversation’ with his wife. Her relationship with Wyatt did not last and by 1818 she was referring to herself as Ann Attersoll, probably because she was living with John Attersoll (c. 1784–1822), a wealthy merchant, banker and MP for Wootton Bassett 1812–1813. At this time she corresponded with Southey, sending him a copy of her Peter the Cruel King of Castile and Leon: An Historical Play in Five Acts (1818). By 1820 (possibly earlier) she was living in France and had dropped the name of Attersoll and adopted that of Madame St. Anne Holmes (much to Southey’s confusion). A French translation of Roderick, the Last of the Goths, published in 1821 by Pierre Hippolyte Amillet de Sagrie (1785–1830), was dedicated to her. She remained in France and was later known by the surname de la Pigueliere.’ Authorship of Peter the Cruel King of Castile and Leon, an Historical Play in Five Acts [1818] is accordingly attributed to Mrs Attersoll in the University of Toronto Libraries’ online ‘Jackson Bibliography of Romantic Poetry’ (in progress): https://jacksonbibliography.library.utoronto.ca/search/details/4119. While this new information does not disqualify the use of the name Ann Doherty for the authorship of this item as well as that of The Castles of Wolfnorth and Mont Eagle (1812: 31), ‘by St. Ann’, and The Knights of the Glen (1815: 22), it does indicate that the latter two titles were written at a time when that name was probably not in use, as well as providing a link to at least one other work by the same author in a different genre.

1809: 15 [BYRON, ‘Medora Gordon’], CELIA IN SEARCH OF A HUSBAND. BY A MODERN ANTIQUE. Item 18 in Quaritch Catalogue, 1442 (2020), describing a same-year third edition of this work, tentatively proposes the true author as Julia Maria Byron. For further details, see entry for 1808: 33 above.

1810: 74 SCOTT, Honoria [pseud.?], A winter in Edinburgh; or, the Russian brothers; a novel. Further support for identification of the author as Susan Fraser can be found in a contemporary review of her Camilla de Florian, and Other Poems (1809), ‘By an Officer’s Wife’, in the Satirist, or, Monthly Meteor, 5 (Sept 1809), 300–3: ‘Mrs. Fraser, the author of the little volume now under our consideration … it appears is the lady of an officer in the 42d regiment; that gallant body of hardy Highlanders, who, wherever the British standard has been unfurled have covered themselves with glory. From an address to the reviewers, prefixed to the work, we learn that Capt. Fraser is now in an ill state of health, produced by wounds received in the service of his country’ (p. 301). Camilla de Florian itself contains a dedication to the Duchess of York signed Susan Fraser, as well as a list ‘Subscribers’ Names’. Its publisher, J. Dick of Chiswell Street, London, also features in the imprint of the present title as well those of 1810: 72, 1810: 73, and 1813: 54, the other three novels supposedly written by Honoria Scott. In Update 4 reference is made to ‘Honoria Scott (which may or may not be a pseudonym for Susan Fraser)’. In light of the above evidence, and the interest shown in both the Spanish Peninsular War and Scottish themes across both genres, it seem reasonable now to replace the author line of the four novels involved with ‘[?FRASER, Susan]’.

1823: 86 [WILSON, James], THE FIRE-EATER. There appear to be two possible candidates for the authorship as generally attributed to James Wilson. 1) James Wilson (1795–1856), the zoologist and younger brother of John Wilson (the ‘Christopher North’ of Blackwood’s Magazine). In Peter’s Letters to His Kinsfolk (1819), J. G. Lockhart describes the young Wilson ‘as no less a poet than a naturalist’, adding that ‘he has already published several little pieces of exquisite beauty, although he has not ventured to give his name along with them’ (1.262). However, the list of his publications that concludes James Hamilton’s Memoirs of the Life of James Wilson, Esq. of Woodville (London, 1859) lists only his scientific publications. Some encouragement might possibly be found in the dedication of this novel to John Wilson, though signalising one’s brother in this way could have risked looking odd by the standards of the day. 2) James Wilson (d. 1858), son of Major Wilson, Royal Artillery. This Wilson is on record as having been admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh in 1807, then qualifying as an English Barrister, after which he served as Chief Justice of Mauritius 1835–57. The record in Stephen and Elizabeth Walker’s The Faculty of Advocates, 1800–1986 (Edinburgh, 1987) also adds that he was an ‘Author’ (p. 194). In this light it is interesting to note the NLS Catalogue’s description of the author of The Fire-Eater as ‘Wilson, James (Advocate)’. There is a letter presumably from the same Wilson to Lockhart of 16 October 1824, from Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Here Wilson repeats his willingness, already expressed to Lockhart before leaving Edinburgh, to fill up his vacation with literary work: ‘In this matter you could serve me much, by letter of introduction to the quarters which you think most likely to serve my views.—Since I have the misfortune to enjoy so little, if any, of the acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott, it would perhaps be idle in me to hope that he would interest himself in my favour’ (NLS, MS 935, f. 272). The second (and last) novel attributed to James Wilson is dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, 18 May 1824 (see also next entry). Both these Wilson novels have French settings, and involve military situations, the first concerning a plot against the Bourbons in the wake of Waterloo, the second being set at the time of Marlborough’s campaigns. This second James Wilson’s father being a Major in the Royal Artillery might best explain such choices of subject, and in view of all the evidence he seems the more likely candidate for the authorship.

1824: 98 [WILSON, James], TOURNAY; OR ALASTER OF KEMPENCAIRN. For discussion as to the identity of James Wilson as author see preceding entry. Interestingly this novel is attributed to R. P. Gillies in Catalogue of the Library at Abbotsford (Edinburgh, 1838), along with Old Tapestry (see 1819: 47 above). Examination of the Abbotsford copy, however, reveals no handwritten inscription of the kind that might indicate Gillies, the dedication there to Scott being part of the printed text.

1826: 42 Hall, Mrs A. C., OBSTINACY. The author initials can now be confidently expanded to Agnes Crombie (for whom see updated Notes to 1819: 59, above). This work is listed separately from the original novels associated with the pseudonym Rosalia St. Clair in Hall’s 1843 appeal to the Royal Literary Fund (Case 555, no. 46), as ‘a tale for Youth’ published by Longmans. In a letter of 1828 to the Fund, Hall claimed that she had received no profit from the work: ‘Calling a short time ago at Messrs Longman & co. to obtain a settlement for a small work published nearly two years ago I had the mortification to hear from Mr. Orme … that no emolument whatever was likely to be derived from it’ (item 2). Previously the terms undertaken with Longmans had been described in a letter of 6 January 1826 written on her behalf by George Dyer: ‘I have also lying before me an agreement between Messrs Longman and Co Booksellers, and Mrs Hall dated 19 Sept 1825, and signed by both parties, relating to a Tale to be called Obstinacy, which waits(?) to be published by Longman and Co and the profits shared between them … Mrs Hall has also translated a good deal from the French’ (Case 223, item 20). This is evidently the only standard work of fiction to have been published under Hall’s true name.

1826: 58 THE STANLEY TALES, ORIGINAL AND SELECT. CHIEFLY COLLECTED BY THE LATE AMBROSE MARTEN, OF STANLEY PRIORY, TEESDALE. Previously attributed to Ambrose Martin, though the name is more evidently part of the fiction. Such is noted in a contemporary review in the Literary Chronicle, which observes how the framework is ‘concocted in humble imitation of the Waverley fashion of ushering in a novel or a story’. The same review also notes that the ‘collection of tales is published in monthly parts’, each being ‘ornamented with a respectable engraving’ (21 October 1826, p. 661). One possible clue towards the true authorship is found in an obituary of Charles Robert Forrester in the Gentleman’s Magazine for May 1850, which in listing his earlier publications notes that ‘He also wrote for the “Stanley Tales”’ (vol. 187, p. 545). This presumably underlies the statement in the present ODNB entry for Forrester that ‘In 1826–7 he contributed to the Stanley Tales’. Forrester is the recognised author of the nearby novels Castle Baynard; or, the Days of John (1824: 35) and Sir Roland. A Romance of the Twelfth Century (1827: 30), both written under the pseudonym of Hal Willis. In view of the above information, and the possibility that multiple authorship was involved, it would seem safest for the moment to revise the author line to ‘MARTIN, Ambrose [pseud.]’, with additions to the Notes pointing to Forrester’s likely involvement. The Notes field should also now observe publication in monthly parts.

Appendix F: 1 [?ISDELL, Sarah or ?PILKINGTON, Mary], *FITZHERBERT. A NOVEL. Reference to this novel is possibly made, though under a slightly different name, in an appeal by the Irish author Sarah Isdell to the Royal Literary Fund in a letter of 20 February 1810, Case 246, item 1. In this she describes how having come to London, with two novels already to her name, she had unsuccessfully offered her ‘Novel of Faulkner’ to a number of publishers, ending with ‘Mr Crosby’ who had offered to publish it only if it could be deferred to the following year. It is it not improbable then that the novel might have subsequently passed further down chain of respectability to J. F. Hughes (an ex-associate of Crosby), with whom the publication of Fitzherbert in 1810 is associated, nor that in such hands the original eponymous title might have been altered to one scandalously matching that of a rumoured secret wife of the Prince of Wales.

C: New Titles for Potential Inclusion

1803
HUNTER, [Rachel].
LETTERS OF MRS. PALMERSTONE TO HER DAUGHTER; INCULCATING MORALITY BY ENTERTAINING NARRATIVES. BY MRS. HUNTER OF NORWICH. IN THREE VOLUMES.
London: Printed by W. Robberds, Norwich; and sold by Longman and Rees, Paternoster-Row, 1803.
I, xiii, 232p; II, 222p; 256p. 8vo. 15s boards (CR).
CR 3rd ser. 3: 118 (Jan 1804); ER 3: 258 (Oct 1803).
p.c. [NSTC, ECB, CME pending].
Notes. Dedication signed Rachel Hunter, Norwich, June 1, 1803. ‘Advertisement’, similarly signed, refers to her preceding novels, Letitia; or, the Castle without a Spectre (1801: 35) and The History of the Grubthorpe Family (1802: 32), stating that her intention had been to reserve ‘the introduction of her own name’ to the present work. ‘A Dialogue Between the Author and Her Reader, Mr. Not-At-All’ (pp. [vii]–xiii). Fourteen tales in all, some of which such as ‘Hamet, An Allegorical Tale’ (vol. 3, pp. 42–110) are of a considerable length. Ostensibly offering moral instruction from a mother to her daughter, these ‘letters’ display a range of modes with a fairly complicated layering of narrative voices, placing the work at a level of ‘juvenile’ literature comparable to Mara Edgeworth’s Moral Tales (1801: 25) and Jane Taylor’s Display (1815: 50), both of which did gain inclusion to the printed Bibliography. This title also features as one of the works ‘by the author’ on the title-pages of all of her four remaining works of fiction (1804: 26, 1806: 36, 1807: 30, 1811: 46), so inclusion now might be said to complete her oeuvre as a novelist.
Further edn: 1810.

1811
[QUILLINAN, Edward].
NEW CANTERBURY TALES; OR THE GLORIES OF THE GARRISON. BY OLIVER OUTLINE, MAJOR-GENERAL, &C &C.
London: Printed for Henry Colburn, English and Foreign Public Library, Conduit Street, Hanover Square, 1811.
185p. 12mo. 5s (ER, QR).
ER 19: 252 (Nov 1811); QR 6: 563 (Dec 1811).
p.c.; 3 copies in UK; 7 in US. [NSTC, ECB pending].
Notes. Dedication ‘to Job Makepeace, Esq.’. In form of comic dialogues sketching scenes of military life, with brief narrative links, reminiscent in some respects of Peacock’s comic satires. Author identification from Quaritch Catalogue, 1442 (2020), item 89, which points out that chapter 7 (‘The Ball Room Votaries’) is a prose version of Quillinan’s first book of verse Ball Room Votaries; or Canterbury and its Vicinity (1810). OCLC and COPAC both fail to go beyond the pseudonym. Quillinan’s first wife was a daughter of Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, after whose decease, much later in 1841, he became Wordsworth’s son-in-law by marrying Dora. ER and QR both lists under ‘Novels’.

1819
[JOHNSON, Thomas Burgeland.]
*THE MYSTERY OF THE ABBEY; OR, THE WIDOW’S FIRE SIDE.
London: Printed for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster Row. Published by R. Sutton, Paradise-street, Liverpool, and to be had of all Booksellers, 1819.
2 vols. in 1.
xNSTC.
Notes. Not seen, but appeared as item 228 in Jarndyce Catalogue, CXCI (Winter 2010–11). Copy described as having tipped at rear of vol. a single folded contemporary MS sheet entitled Widow’s Fire Side and with double column list of [subscribers?] names. The fuller title is listed amongst ‘Works preparing for Publication’ in Blackwood’s Magazine, 5 (May 1819). The novel is attributed to Thomas Burgeland Johnson (c. 1778–1840; ODNB), better known as a sporting journalist, in Charles Henry Timperley’s Encyclopedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote (London, 1842), p. 5, which also notes that he had worked formerly as a printer in Liverpool. According to Edith Birkhead the abbey in the book is ‘haunted’ by the proprietors of a distillery, and its horrible spectre turns out to be a harmless idiot. ‘Apart from these gibes, there is not a hint of the supernatural in the whole book. It is a picaresque novel, written by a sportsman. The title is merely a hoax’: The Tale of Terror (London, 1921), p. 140.

1826
[DARLEY, George.]
THE LABOURS OF IDLENESS; OR, SEVEN NIGHTS’ ENTERTAINMENTS. BY GUY PENSEVAL.
London: Printed for John Taylor. Waterloo-Place, Pall-Mall, 1826.
330p. 8vo. 9s 6d (ECB).
O 26.238; ECB 441; NSTC 2P10662 (BI C, E, BL, O; NA DLC, MH).
Notes. ‘Epistle Dedicatory to the Reader’, [3]–15, end-signed Guy Penseval, Brooklands, January 1st, 1826. ECB dates Mar 1826. Consists of seven quite varied tales, mostly dealing with love, and interspersed with a few poems. James Burmester Catalogue 78, item 91, describes a hybrid copy, incorporating this work and Robert Dyer’s The Story of a Wanderer (see 1826: 33), under the mantle title of The New Sketch Book, by G. Crayon, jun. (London: Printed for the Author, 1829). The catalogue description speculates that Darley, struggling for income, reissued the work in an attempt to revive sales, but felt that it would fare better with the circulating libraries if presented in a new dress and in 2 vols. NSTC 2P10663, however, describes as ‘an unauthorised issue’.

D: Titles Previously not Located for Which Holding Libraries Have Subsequently Been Discovered

1801: 41
KING, Sophia [afterwards FORTNUM].
THE VICTIM OF FRIENDSHIP; A GERMAN ROMANCE. BY SOPHIA KING, AUTHOR OF TRIFLES FROM HELICON; WALDORF, OR THE DANGERS OF PHILOSOPHY; AND CORDELIA, A ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE.
London: Printed for R. Dutton, 10, Birchin-Lane, Cornhill, 1801.
I, vi, ii, 190p; II 216p. 12mo. 7s boards (CR).
CR 2nd ser. 32: 232 (June 1801); WSW I: 355.
NNS [New York Society Library], Ham F7438 V4; xNSTC.
Notes: Sophia King was a sister of Charlotte Dacre, with whom she published Trifles of Helicon (1798), a collection of verse (see Jackson, p. 95).

For 1805: 43, see under Section A.

Appendix F.5
MATHEWS, Eliza Kirkham.
THE PHANTOM; OR, MYSTERIES OF THE CASTLE. A TALE OF OTHER TIMES. BY THE LATE MRS. MATHEWS, OF THE THEATRES ROYAL, YORK AND HULL.
London: Printed for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy Paternoster-Row; and I. Wilson, Hull, 1825.
iv, 248p, ill. 12mo. 4s.
BL RB23.a.20672; xNSTC.
Notes. End colophon of William Rawson, Printer, Hull (also verso of title-page). Price (as noted in Update 2) from list of ‘New Publications’ by A. K. Newman at end of vol. 2 of Alexander Campbell, Perkin Warbeck; or, the Court of James the Fourth of Scotland (EN3, 1830: 36). Another copy reported by James Burmester (who also supplied the BL copy in 1992). According to Burmester this represents a 1-vol. reissue of a gothic novel first published in 2 vols. (but continuously paginated) in Hull in about 1798, utilizing the original Hull-printed sheets, suppressing the original prelims to the new vols., and adding a new title-page and preface. Eliza Kirkham Mathews (née Strong) was the first wife of Charles Mathews the famous comedian; they married in 1797 and shortly afterwards joined Tate Wilkinson’s York circuit, which included Hull. Evidently printed while she was there, the original Hull edition is unrecorded (at least under this name), and appears not to have survived. The BL catalogue attributes the work to Mathews’s second wife Anne Jackson Mathews; another copy at the Huntington Library also contains a misleading note regarding authorship. The BL copy includes a woodcut plate, absent in both the Huntington copy and that reported by Burmester, and which may have been inserted from another source. Discovery of this 1825 edition introduces a number of issues about the ultimate positioning of this title, as to whether it is placed speculatively in the late 1790s or as part of the 1825 listing as a reissue with an uncertain back history.

E: New Information Relating to Existing Title Entries

1800: 36 GENLIS, [Stéphanie-Félicité], [Comtesse] de, THE RIVAL MOTHERS, OR CALUMNY. French source title give as ‘Paris 1800’. However the original imprint reads: ‘Berlin: Chez F. T. de La Garde; et à Paris, chez Barba, libraire, Palais du Tribunot, Galerie de Bois, no. 225’. Therefore the correct designation would appear to be ‘Berlin and Paris’.

1803: 67(a) and (b) STÆL-HOLSTEIN, [Anne Louise Germaine] de, DELPHINE: A NOVEL. French source text in each case given as ‘Geneva, 1802’ [as published by Paschoud]. However, as is noted in John Robertshaw, Catalogue 137, item 121, there is evidence that a Paris edition with the date an XI, 1803, was actually the first. ‘On 5th May 1802 Madame de Staël agreed a contract with Maradan to publish “Delphine”—before the appearance of the Paschoud edition. It is not known exactly when the Paschoud edition went on sale, but it is clear it was an unauthorised edition. Schazmann 30 and the Bibliothèque Nationale exhibition catalogue “Madame de Staël et l’Europe” (1966) p. 55 both state that the Maradan edition is the first. Lonchamp’s bibliography (1949) pp. 30–33 gives priority to the Geneva edition—he gives various reasons one of which is the lack of an errata in the Maradan edition, but he has failed to notice that at the end of vol. 6 there is a page of errata.’ In view of the above, it might seem more reasonable to describe the title as ‘Trans. of Delphine (Paris, 1803)’—though, at least until fuller investigation, there must remain a possibility either or both of these editions were involved.

1804: 27 [IRELAND, Samuel William Henry], *BRUNO; OR, THE SEPULCHRAL SUMMONS. Serious doubt is cast on the existence of this work by Jeffrey Kahan, in ‘The Search for W. H. Ireland’s Bruno’, European Romantic Review, 24:1 (2013), 3–22 <https://doi.org/10.1080/10509585.2013.747803>. Kahan notes the description of such a title as ‘a novel of terror’ in Montague Summers’s The Gothic Quest (London, [1938]), p. 346, followed by similar mentions by Maurice Lévy (1968) and Devendra Varma (1972), as well as the putative synopsis by Frank (Item 200). However no evidence has been found as to an actual copy owned by these critics, or one to which they might have had access. As Kahan also observes, Bruno is absent as a work by Ireland on title-pages prior to the 2nd edition (1834) of his The Abbess; and the work is listed as a 3-vol. work only as late as the 1839 London Catalogue of books. He also points to the existence of a short story by Ireland titled ‘Legend of Bruno’, elements of which might possibly belong the period 1799–1805. Kahan offers a number of conjectural explanations, amongst which bibliographical deception is a common thread. As a consequence it would seem safer to remove this item from the main chronological listings, possibly placing it in Appendix F instead.

1806: 35 HARVEY, Jane, THE CASTLE OF TYNEMOUTH. A TALE. 2nd edn., Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1830, contains a ‘List of Subscribers’, the text of which can be viewed at <https://chawtonhouse.org/_www/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/The-Castle-of-Tynemouth.-A-Tale.pdf>.

1807: 15 COTTIN, [Sophie Ristaud]; MEEKE, [Elizabeth] (trans.), ELIZABETH; OR, THE EXILES OF SIBERIA. A TALE, FOUNDED ON FACTS. Update 5 pointed to a possibly earlier translation than this Minerva Press publication, one issued by Oddy and Co., W. Oddy, and Appleyards at the beginning of 1807. An additional translator, either for this or one of several other contemporary editions, can now be claimed in Agnes Crombie Hall (for whom, see updated Notes to 1819: 59). According to the introduction (4 pp. unn.) to an 1874 Jedburgh edn. of her short tale The Autobiography of a Scottish Borderer, published under the name of Mrs Hall: ‘She translated several works from the Continental languages, one of them being the tale, once a favourite “The Exiles of Siberia”—from the French of Madame Cottin.’ Initially published in Fraser’s Magazine, vol. 8 (Oct 1833), pp. 396–412, Hall’s own original story had been first issued as a single item as A Tale; or Autobiography of a Scottish Borderer (Jedburgh: Printed for Walter Easton, 1834). Though the small print used here makes this definable as a shorter tale, the page length (40 pp.) would have probably precluded entry as a full item in EN3. Like the possible extra translation, it nevertheless adds usefully to the now enlarged corpus of fiction relating to Agnes Crombie Hall.

1808: 39 COTTIN, [Sophie Ristaud], CLARA; A NOVEL. Described in entry as ‘Trans. of Claire d’Albe (Paris, 1799)’. Imprint of personal copy of the French original under that title reads: ‘A Paris, Chez Maradan, Libraire, rue Pavée-André-des-Arcs, no 16 An VII.’ Author accreditation there reads ‘Par La C.***.’

1810: 67 PLUNKETT, [Elizabeth] [née Gunning], DANGERS THROUGH LIFE: OR, THE VICTIM OF SEDUCTION. A NOVEL. A footnote to the ‘Literary Retrospection’ introducing Sarah Green’s Romance Readers and Romance Writers (1810: 46) reads: ‘Vide “DANGERS THROUGH LIFE,” published by Mrs. Plunkett, as original. This novel is a translation of “LES MALHEURS DE L’INCONSTANCE.”’ This refers to Claude-Joseph Dorat’s Les Malheurs de l’inconstance (Amsterdam and Paris, 1772), first translated into English by Elizabeth Griffith as The Fatal Effects of Inconstancy (see EN1, 1774: 25). Compare the suspicion of the Critical Review: ‘In looking over several of these letters, we are struck with almost a conviction that they are a translation, or at least a very strict imitation from the French’ (3rd ser. 19 (Apr 1810): 377–83 (p. 379)). Comparison between the plots of Plunkett’s work and the above French original suggest a number of parallels, though the characters’ names have become English, and there are apparently some embellishments in plotting. Had it constituted only a subsequent translation, Dangers through Life would not have merited inclusion as an individual entry. As things stand, pending contrary information, it is perhaps more appropriately considered as a looser reworking or ‘imitation’.

1811: 47 [?JOHNSTONE, Andrew Gregory], RHYDISEL. THE DEVIL IN OXFORD. Andrew here replaces the mistaken Anthony in the original entry, the corrected full name accurately reflecting that in the Bodleian Library Catalogue, which itself may result from special knowledge. Restoration of the correct name now makes it possible to move further to a possible identification of the author. Andrew Gregory Johnston[e], who died 1850 in his 65th year, is listed as the owner of a slave plantation in Anchovy Valley, Portland, Jamaica (see ‘Legacies of British Slave-ownership’: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146630665). According to this record, he was in Britain until c. 1830, and had bought Fritton Hall [in Suffolk] in 1819. He is also listed as owning slaves in Portland, Jamaica, in the 1817 Jamaica almanac; and ownership may well have come earlier in the form of an inheritance. In this light it is interesting to note two incidents in the novel touching on slavery. In the first, a Henry lord Olbion talks fulsomely about emancipating all slaves, while ‘a young gentleman just arrived from West Indies’ accepts the basic principle but argues for a more gradual approach in view of the economic ramifications: ‘I know with what ease a speculator traverses the continent of Africa in imagination, and disposes the government of his country to communicate liberty and equality to all the inhabitants; but let it be remembered that he is no loser by his philanthropy: whereas, every gentleman in the West Indies, that liberates a slave … resigns a considerable part of his estate, and also presents the enfranchised man with an annuity for life’ (1.27–28). A sense that the above represents an authorised viewpoint is reinforced when Olbion in the aftermath, on a hurry to make chapel, abuses a beggar woman and knocks out one of the eyes of her child. The subject comes into view later in the novel (and with a hint of personal knowledge) through the story of a man in the West Indies who usurps property there, depriving his nephews of their rights, and, having returned to England and married, later considers endowing a College. But only in the process to be bitten by a mad dog, leading to further reduction of his rear through surgery: ‘cutting, carving, burning, and cauterizing, till he had scarce any thing left to sit or lie on’ (2.197–98). Allowing two years in advance of the actual publication of the novel in July 1811, the ‘West Indian’ Johnstone would have been about 23 at the time of writing. This identification gains further support from the British Library copy which reportedly bears the following attribution on the verso of its title-page: This novel was written by my dear [ingenious?] friend Andrew Gregory Johnstone when a very young man. W. A. D. H.’ In view of this, it would seem reasonable now to remove the question mark before the author name.

1820: 37 HUISH, Robert, FATHERLESS ROSA; OR, THE DANGERS OF THE FEMALE LIFE. Bernard Quaritch Catalogue, 1433 (Autumn 2018), item 29, describes copy with a note on the front pastedown recording the purchase of the 22 parts for 11s and binding 2s.

1821: 26 [CAREY, David], A LEGEND OF ARGYLE; OR ’TIS A HUNDRED YEARS SINCE. Add at beginning of Notes field: ‘“Advertisement” (2 pp. unn.) concerning anonymity and authenticity.

1824: 9 ANON, JAMES FORBES; A TALE, FOUNDED ON FACTS. Quaritch Catalogue, 1442 (2020), item 51, describes the dedicatee, ‘Mrs Mackinnon, of Portswood House, in the County of Southampton, and of Hyde Park Place, London’ as a friend of Anna-Maria and Jane Porter. (Transcription of Dedication details above from personal copy.)

1824: 74 [?PEERS, John], THE CONFESSIONS OF A GAMESTER. James Burmester, Catalogue 34, item 65, describes a copy with a 2-page autograph letter signed by Peers, and so confirming the NSTC/Bodleian attribution. ‘Dated from Lambeth, 26 April, 1828, and addressed to “My dear Sir”, the letter refers to a pending decision of the Court of Aldermen on the conduct of the Chaplain of the prison in Whitecross Street, central London, and begs “acceptance of a little work which I published some time since—the subject of it died in the neighbourhood of Thorn Arch”.’ The Burmester entry goes on to conclude, from this and its contents, that the book ‘appears to be a genuine autobiography rather than a fictional narrative’. The absence of any materials in the supplementary fields for this title in DBF also argues against its belonging to the mainstream fiction scene. As a result, there appears to be a case for removing it from the main chronological entries, in addition to removing the question mark.

1825: 50 [LAUDER, Sir Thomas Dick], LOCHANDHU A TALE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. John Robertshaw, Catalogue 122 (2011), item 109, describes 1828 French trans. published by Charles Gosselin, claiming in its titles to be ‘Traduction de l’anglais sur la seconde édition, par A.-J.-B. Defauconpret’. No in-period British 2nd edn. has been discovered, so this is possibly part of a ploy designed to give a sense of runaway popularity in Britain. The ascription of the work at the same time to ‘Sir Edward Maccauley’ also suggests a lack of scrupulosity, not unfitting for Gosselin, who also mass-produced translations of the Waverley novels directly under Scott’s name, accompanied by a plethora of engraved illustrations and maps.

1825: 87 [WESTMACOTT, Charles Molloy], FITZALLEYNE OF BERKELEY. A ROMANCE OF THE PRESENT TIMES. Jarndyce Catalogue, clxxvii (Spring 2010), item 668, describes a copy with two later newspaper cuttings and a contemporary MS note reading: ‘This relates to the family scandal of the notorious Earl Fitzhardinge, his brothers the Berkeleys, and the whole disreputable lot’.

1826: 56 [MÄMPEL, Johann C.], THE ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG RIFLEMAN, IN THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH ARMIES, DURING THE WAR IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, FROM 1806 TO 1816. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. John Robertshaw, Catalogue 144 (2018), item 110, which led to purchase of this copy, states that ‘The preface is by Goethe’. On this basis the Notes field should include after ‘Trans.’ details the following sentence: ‘Preface by the Editor’ supposedly by Goethe. The title should also begin with ‘THE’, and the correct pagination for preliminaries is ‘vi’ not ‘iv’.

1827: 48 [LAUDER, Sir Thomas Dick], THE WOLFE OF BADENOCH; A HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. John Robertshaw, Catalogue 122 (2011), item 108, describes 1828 French trans. (Le Loup de Badenoch) published by Charles Gosselin, claiming in its title to be ‘Traduit de l’anglais sur la troisième-édition, par A.-J.-B. Defauconpret’, though only a 2nd in-period British edn. has been discovered (see also 1825: 50 above). It also wrongly gives the author as ‘Sir Edward Maccauley’. In the original Bibliography entry the pagination of vol. 1 should read ‘I, vii, 299’, and it is worth adding to the Notes field: ‘Preliminary Notice’ stating that ‘The Wolfe of Badenoch was advertised in June 1825, at which time it was ready for press’ [v].’

1828: 57 MANZONI, Alessandro; [SWAN, Charles (trans.)], THE BETROTHED LOVERS; A MILANESE TALE OF THE XVIIth. CENTURY. Item 65 in Quaritch Catalogue, 1442 (2020) describes copy with same Italian imprint, and adds that the translator Charles Swan had it printed in Pisa while staying there, the title being subsequently issued by Rivington in June 1828. The Quaritch copy also reportedly contains a terminal advertisement leaf in vol. 1 for works published by C. & J. Rivington. This tends to corroborate the account for this title in Update 6 regarding its having been fully distributed in Britain.

1830: 40 [COOPER, James Fenimore], THE WATER WITCH; OR, THE SKIMMER OF THE SEAS. A TALE. James Burmester draws attention to the fact that the proper first edition of this novel, preceding both the London and Philadelphia editions, was the English-language version printed in Dresden, 1830 (published before 18 September). This however does not override the present entry, owing to the policy of prioritizing first British editions in the Bibliography. There was also a Berlin 1830 edn. (as Die Wassernixe), which accounts for the present ‘German trans., 1830’ component. The same situation apparently applied to the English edition of Cooper’s The Borderers (1829: 27), printed in Florence, likewise reflecting Cooper’s practice of having his manuscripts set by local printers while abroad. The text of the Dresden edition of the Water Witch, together with a commentary, can be viewed at http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/texts/dresden.html.

F: Further Editions not Previously Noted

1814: 59 WARD, Catherine G[eorge], THE SON AND THE NEPHEW; OR, MORE SECRETS THAN ONE. Another edn. published by T. Mason, 1817. This is evidently a reissue from old sheets of the original 3-vol. novel published by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, with similar pagination and bearing the same colophon of ‘Molineux, 4, Bolt Court, Fleet Street’ (see https://archive.org/search.php?query=the%20son%20and%20the%20nephew). Unlike the original edn. the replacement title-page however does not refer to the Dedication to Mrs Boehme, though the Dedication itself does follow.

1827: 68 [?SURR, Thomas Skinner], RICHMOND; OR, SCENES IN THE LIFE OF A BOW STREET OFFICER. James Burmester Catalogue 50, item 122, records a Colburn 1834 edition, consisting of the original 1827 sheets with new title-pages. Not found in COPAC or OCLC.

Addendum to Update 4, Addendum 1, Charles Sedley

In spite of providing considerable support in Update 4 for a John Battersby Elrington being the person behind the pseudonym of Charles Sedley (see 1807: 57, etc.), Jacqueline Belanger and Peter Garside conclude: ‘This might all seem conclusive evidence, were it not for the fact that it has not so far been possible to verify the existence of a real John Battersby Elrington.’ Edward Pope however has written to say that in his archival research he has found evidence of the real existence of John Battersby Elrington. A person of that name was in debtor’s prison (Fleet and Kings Bench) from 23 January to 22 August 1811, as well as being in a list of debtors in Newgate Prison June 1813. Also there are two baptisms of children of a John Battersby Elrington in Jamaica in 1792 and 1793, mother’s name Isabella Parker. In view of this new information, the case for a qualified attribution of the Sedley titles to Elrington, along possibly with Tell-Tale Sophas (1814: 12) by ‘John Battersby’, becomes more compelling.