Author: Brooke, Mr. [Henry]
Title: The Fool of Quality; or the History of Henry Earl of Moreland / 5 Volumes
Description: London, W. Johnston, 1767 - 1770. Leather Bound. 8vo. Bound in contemporary full brown leather. Red spine labels, gilt lettering and volume numbers, and raised bands to spines. General scuffing, hinges starting, some loss to spines at head, surface crackling to leather, Lord Strathallan's bookplate to front endpapers, tidy calligraphied initials to one title page, contents clean and unmarked, bindings sound. The first three volumes are said on the title page, to belong to the "Second Edition /In Four Volumes". The fourth and fifth volumes are given, on the title pages, volume numbers only (and therefore presumably first editions). At the end of volume 4 there is an ‘Advertisement’ beginning “It was originally proposed to have comprised this Work in four Volumes; but the Matter has grown so upon the Writer that he finds himself under a necessity of taking more Room”: hence the unexpected 5th volume.The Fool of Quality was a popular British novel of sensibility, "a rambling narrative centred on the education of an ideal nobleman. Its moral message recommended it to John Wesley, a founder of Methodism, who edited an abridged version in 1780." (- Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature).

Keywords: Irish; Picaresque; Novel; Fiction; Philosophical; Harry Clinton; Methodism; Sensibility; Rare Books; First editions; Collectable; Collectible; leatherbound; fine bindings


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