Held in Bondage

£125 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Held In Bondage, was first published in the New Monthly Magazine, as ‘Granville De Vigne, A Tale Of The Day’, January 1861-June 1863, and in book form in 3 volumes in 1863. In her Preface, Ouida makes apology for the “errors both of structure and style” in this, the “earliest work I ever wrote”. Whilst acknowledging this, she writes that she has “thought it … useless to attempt any correction of these”. She hopes “no reader will form any judgement upon me as a writer from this very immature and most imperfect romance.” “A very early novel, written when the writer was strongly under the influence of the muscular school. The hero Granville de Vigne is first encountered at public school. The heir to £20,000 pounds a year, Vigne is a superb sportsman and general swell. The novel is narrated by his hero-worshipping friend, Arthur Chevasney. After three fast years at Cambridge, Vigne lords it over London society, with his inseparable companion Vivian Sabretasche. Despite his mother’s anxieties, he woos and wins the reigning beauty, ‘the Trefusis’. As she signs the register after the wedding, Trefusis discloses herself to be Lucy Davis, a Welsh girl whom Vigne earlier seduced and abandoned. She has married Vigne only to destroy his happiness forever. The story jumps ten years. Vigne and Sabretasche are discovered as soldiers of the Queen fighting Indian bandits. They return to England, where Vigne falls in love with Alma Tresillian, an artist. On his part, Sabretasche wins the heart

• Year: 1893

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