Author: Childar, Catharine [pseudonym of Aldrich, Annie Charlotte Catharine]
Title: The DOUBLE DUTCHMAN. In Three Volumes
Description: London: Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, 1884. 1st Edition. Not in Wolff. Publisher's distinctive yellow & black cloth bindings, with geometric design aspects. Green floral patterned paper eps. 3 vols: [4], 319, [1]; [4], 309, [1]; [4], 301, [17], 8 pp. 24 pages of publisher adverts conclude Vol III. 8vo. 7-3/4" x 5-1/8". Cloth bindings slightly marked and rubbed, with minor bumping to the tips, fraying to the edges of the overlaid yellow cloth to the spine and minor loss at the spine ends. The text blocks are slightly age toned, a little marked and dusty, with minor cracking at points. There is a period newspaper review of the novel affiexed to the front pastedown of Vol 1 [which concludes with " .. a book that deserves to be read." Overall, a Very Good set.  The 4th, and last, novel to be penned by this elusive lady author. Chiefly a society romance, with interesting, albeit couched in decidedly racist terms, themes of the difficulties of interracial and inter-faith love during the late-Victorian British colonial era, as one suitor is mistaken for an Italian prince, but proves to be a Hindu from India. Another plot strand focuses on a long-lost husband and possible mistaken identity, this being the Double Dutchman of the title. There are further elements of the sensation novel thrown in for good measure, a false confinement as a lunatic in an asylum, some stolen diamonds, though the novel, not unexpectedly, concludes with a happy ending. It is also comparatively racy (for a Victorian triple-decker from a major publisher), with relatively non-condemnatory references to alcoholic debauchery & gambling.  OCLC records 6 holding institutions, of which only 1 is in the US [UCLA]. Rare in the trade.

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