Sachgebiete

Beschreibung:

8°, circa 16,8 x 10 cm., 3 ff., 172 pp., 2 ff., 6 pp.. Half-calf with gilded spine and decorated covers (bound maybe around 1850) Rare only edition of these letters (supposedly?) written by Elizabeth Craven (1750-1828) to one of her sons. We are unable to find an English edition and there is no mention of this book in the study on her literary work by Hans Ley, Die litterarische Tätigkeit der Lady Craven (Erlangen 1904). The anonymous editor claims to have found these letters "dans un porte-feuille, sur le chemin qui conduit de Fulham à Hammersmith". - Lady Craven at the time was rather notorious, her marriage to William Craven, 6th Baron Craven had fallen apart in 1780, she was rumoured to have entertained several affairs long before the divorce and in 1783 she was apparently the mistress of Charles Greville. As a young girl she had met Charles Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach who then invited her to his residence in Frankonia in 1786 where she became effectivly the first lady. When the wife of Charles Alexander died in 1791, the two got married in Lisbon and settled in England. Apart from plays and successful travel books she did later on publish memoirs and her letters to the last Margrave. - Our copy has the leaf C3* exchanged on slightly whiter paper. The relevant sentence is here: "Ce n'est pas ma faute si le mariage détruit tout principe même de son origine, de l'amour, la plus charmante de toutes les passions.".

Bemerkung:

- Title a little darker, with a small scratch in the lower white margin (removed ownership entry), else only a little browned, mostly clean, rubbed.