Author: [CARACCIOLI (Charles)]:
Title: Chiron: Or, the Mental Optician.
Description: London: Printed for J. Robinson..., 1758. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes in 1. 12mo, 169 x 95 mms., pp. [iii] - vi [with second leaf signed A2]. 188; [ii], 192, quarter calf, marbled boards, gilt spine. A good copy. The Monthly Review gave the work a brief notice in 1758: "This Mental Optician is an old gentleman, with a new-invented perspective, by the help of which he discerns the hearts, the real characters, and secret history, of every person he views through this extraordinary glass. - and sad devils he makes of us, sure enough. His plan, however, is rather hackneyed; and so are his strictures upon men and manners: In a word, the performance is altogether a fit companion for the noted Mr. Edward Ward's The London Spy; but by no means to be compared with the celebrated Diable Boitteaux of which this seems to be an imitation." The Critical Review took a slightly better view of the work in a longer notice: "Chiron is apparently written in imitation of the hitherto inimitable Gil Blas, and the Diable Boiteaux,or Devil upon Two Sticks, particularly the latter. Thought there appears in this performance some knowledge of human life, we meet with very little of that beautiful indirect satire, and that poignancy of true and chaste humour for which Le Sage is so eminently distinguished...." ESTC: "Attributed by Richard Gough to Charles Caraccioli but doubted by DNB on good evidence." The entry on Gough in the new ODNB makes no mention of Caraciolli. The entry for Caraciolli notes that Gough did make the attribution and adds, "Gough's interest in Caraccioli arose from the appearance, in 1766, of the Antiquities of Arundel, the subscription list of which shows signs of East Indies connections. The author, who describes himself as the master of the grammar school, states that 'he was educated, and, till within these few years, has lived abroad, totally unconversant in the English Tongue', and a random paragraph of the work is indeed printed in French (Caraccioli, 216). Arundel had no grammar school, but Caraccioli did live at substantial houses in the town between 1764 and 1769 and probably taught at the school conducted in the Fitzalan chapel in the parish church."

Keywords: