FANNY BURNEY'S GROUNDBREAKING FIRST NOVEL. BURNEY, FRANCES, MADAME D'ARBLAY. Evelina, Or a Young...

FANNY BURNEY'S GROUNDBREAKING FIRST NOVEL. BURNEY, FRANCES, MADAME D'ARBLAY. Evelina, Or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World. London: T. Lowndes, 1778. 3 volumes. 12mo (169 x 94 mm). Errata on verso of last leaf of preface, publisher's advertisements in each volume. Near contemporary calf-backed marbled paper boards. Minor chipping to upper joint of volume 1, wear to tips, some rubbing, manuscript corrections to text, taken from errata leaf. Intermittent minor foxing and a few repairs or unobtrusive tears to margins of leaves. Custom cloth chemises, calf-backed cloth slipcase. Provenance: T. Merten, Esq (inscription to); Charles J. Gilbert (C.J.G. ink initials to top page edges of all 3 volumes); Frederick M. Hanes, founding faculty, Duke School of Medicine, co-founder the Hanes Collection, University of North Carolina (1883-1946, bookplate). RARE FIRST EDITION OF BURNEY'S LITERARY LANDMARK, A TALL COPY, a profound influence on Jane Austen. Published anonymously in 1778, the manuscript for Evelina was brought surreptitiously to the publisher Lowndes by Burney's brother in disguise. Burney had even taken care to disguise her handwriting, composing the entirety of the manuscript in a hand completely unlike her normal script. With the early and substantial success of the book, both critically and commercially, including praise from Samuel Johnson, the author was soon revealed to be Fanny Burney, who Virginia Woolf would go on to characterize as the 'the mother of English fiction' (Woolf, Essays, volume 2, 1918). An epistolary satire presenting a young woman's negotiation of English society, Evelina was printed in an edition estimated at 500 copies, selling as many as 3000 copies in 5 editions by the end of 1779. Burney's eloquent descriptions of multiple characters through Evelina's letters, particularly the variation and wit of her dialogue, created an entertaining and poignant portrayal of English society. Indeed, Burney's work would pave the way for not just the courtship novel, but for generations of female novelists including Austen and the Brontës, as well as influencing writers from Dickens to Thackeray. When Camilla was published by subscription in 1796, the subscriber list read as a veritable who's who of literary England, including importantly a 'Miss J. Austen, Steventon' (the first appearance of Austen's name in print), Maria Edgeworth, Hannah More and Anne Radcliffe. A close collation to the copy of Evelina at McGill University has revealed that the present copy interestingly shows variant type settings of pp 121-2, and 143-4 in the third volume, indicating a previously unidentified state of the first edition, sure to be of interest to Burney scholarship. First editions of Evelina are rare in the market, with just 3 copies recorded at auction since 2001, and none since 2014. Overall, a beautiful first edition of an important rarity of English literature from the 'mother of English fiction.' Rothschild 545. We would like to thank Dr. Lorna Clark, Carleton University; Dr. Richard Virr, McGill University Libraries; Dr. Svetlana Kochkina, McGill University Libraries; and Professor Peter Sabor, Director of the Burney Centre, McGill University, for their input in cataloguing this lot. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing