Belinda, or The Fair Fugitive. A Novel.

£2,800 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Rare. ESTC, OCLC, and COPAC together record copies of this German edition at the BL, Bodleian, Royal Danish Library, and seven German libraries . First printed in London in the same year (along with a “new edition in the same year” in London, a Dublin printing and another in Go¨rliz (Germany) in 1795). All editions are recorded in only a handful of copies in ESTC. An engaging novel by an anonymous female novelist, originally published in London for a circulating library during a time of exploding demand by female readers. The novel tells the story of a determined young woman’s escapades as she dodges an unhappy marriage arranged by her father. Clever heroines (made even cleverer - and more dangerous - by reading novels), hilariously clumsy antagonists, and various plot twists accompany the reader along Belinda’s journey to find true love. The first edition of this book was printed in London for “G. Allen, at his Circulating Library” in 1789. It was quickly followed by this first German printing as well as another in Dublin and a second edition in London within a year, plus a second German printing in Görlitz in 1795. Circulating libraries around this time were experiencing a massive growth in popularity, due in no small part to increasing female readership. Female authors, often writing anonymously in the same way as Mrs. C (or sometimes simply as “a lady”), supplied these libraries with large numbers of novels, a book format for which there was high demand now that they coul

• Year: 1789

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