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BRONTË, CHARLOTTE VilletteFirst American Edition in Wrappers [BRONTË, Charlotte]. Villette. By Currer Bell, Author of 'Jane Eyre,' 'Shirley,' &c. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1853. First American edition (in wrappers). Octavo (8 7/8 x 5 9/16 inches; 226 x 142 mm.). 184 pp. plus [4], 4 pp. of advertisements. Text in double columns. Harper’s Library of Select Novels, No. 182. Original brownish orange printed wrappers. Lacking spine, facsimile back wrapper. supplied. Front wrapper has a few short tears. A little bit of foxing. Otherwise an excellent copy. Although published simultaneously with the first American edition in cloth, the paper wrappers edition is much scarcer. 'The novel, like its predecessor The Professor (then unpublished), is based on the author’s experiences in Brussels, here renamed Villette, and also has as its centre a pupil-teacher relationship...The novel combines a masterly portrayal of Belgian daily life with a highly personal use of the elements of Gothic fiction; Charlotte Brontë uses hints of the supernatural...to heighten the impression of her heroine’s nervous isolation and heroic fortitude; but all the apparitions are found to have realistic explanations' (The Oxford Companion to English Literature). 'Villette was published on March 4, 1853. 50 cents. It was published simultaneously in cloth [at $1. Twelvemo, with collation: [2, blank], [2, advertisements], iv, 502, [2, advertisements] pp. plus [16] pp. advertisements for books published by Harper & Brothers] and copies in either binding constitute the first American edition' (Smith). Smith, Brontë, pp. 146-152.
Offered for US$ 1500.00 by: David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB) - Book number: 00460