St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century
London: Richard Bentley, 1835. Very Good-. Item #50361
London: Richard Bentley, 1835. Later Edition. Small octavo (18cm); publisher's purple cloth, black gilt spine pieces; x,478pp.; engraved frontispiece and added title page. Cloth a bit worn and front joint starting to crack, spine cloth quite toned and pieces chipped at margins; foxing to frontispiece, else contents clean and sound. Near Very Good overall. Issued as part of the publisher's Standard Novels, no. 5.
Popular supernatural romance novel set in the 16th century but first published in 1799. The titular character loses his fortune gambling and takes the elixir of life that gives him the power to multiply wealth. "St Leon sets up an opposition between a life of domestic existence marked by affection, candour, and mutual trust, and a solitary, mistrustful existence absorbed with the pursuit of truth and immortality through the cabbalistic arts" (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). As can be surmised from the frontispiece, things don't go well for St. Leon.
Provenance: Armorial ex libris of Andrew Arcedeckne (1780-1849), the British MP and owner of two Jamaica plantations. .
Price: $150.00