Author: Henry Fielding.
Title: The Letter-Writers: or, a New Way to Keep a Wife at Home. A farce in three acts. As it is acted at the Theatre in the Hay-Market. Written by Scriblerus Secundus.
Description: London, printed and sold by J. Roberts 1731. Diminutive slender quarto later blind panelled calf by Riviere (wear to spine, front hinge cracked); 48pp. Trimmed a bit close along the top touching "The" on the title but above the headlines throughout; some natural browning but a good, quite fresh copy that marks the heady days of the Fielding craze of the late 19th and early twentieth centuries when every good copy that could be found was banged into smart bindings by Riviere or Sangorski and flogged to millionaires. ¶ First edition and hard to find. Rushed through the press and published the day the play opened - the 24th of March - to little purpose. Modern critics have described The Letter-Writers as the best of 18th century farces and as dismal but Fielding's contemporaries don't seem to have had any disagreements. It lasted three days and wasn't reprinted for a long time.

Keywords: literature drama c18th England