The Scottish Chiefs, a Romance, by Miss Jane Porter. London: Printed for Longman et al., 1810, 8vo.
THE VERY RARE FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WORKS OF HISTORICAL ROMANCE PUBLISHED.
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Jane Porter was born in Durham, England, the third of five children of the Irishman William Porter and Jane Blenkinsop Porter of Durham. Tall and beautiful as she grew up, young Jane Porter's grave air earned her the nickname La Penserosa after John Milton's poem Il Penseroso. After her father's death, Jane's family moved to Edinburgh, where she studied at a charity school under the schoolmaster George Fulton. Her family was acquainted with Sir Walter Scott. After stints in Durham and Ireland, the Porter family moved to London in the 1790s, where the sisters entered a circle of famous and future-famous actors, artists, and literary women, including Elizabeth Inchbald, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Hannah More, Elizabeth Hamilton, Selina Davenport, Elizabeth Benger and Mrs Champion de Crespigny.
Porter is seen to have "crafted and pioneered many of the narrative tools most commonly associated with both the national tale and the historical novel," though her claims in her lifetime to have done so were often ridiculed and dismissed, most often due to her being female. Her 1810 work The Scottish Chiefs, about William Wallace, one of the earliest examples of the historical novel, was very successful. The French version was banned by Napoleon. It was said to have influenced Scott and other writers and has remained popular with Scottish children.
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Provenance:
Armorial bookplate of the Scott family based at Langlee, a mansion in Scotland, with an ink ownership inscription to the front pastedown of 'Chief (?, maybe Rich[ard]) Scott'. The bookplate bears the motto 'ardenter amo'.
Size: 110 x 175 mm (approx., each)
Condition:
[xi, 357pp, iv]; [(1), 367pp]; [(1), 411pp]; [(1), 386pp]; [(1), 396pp]
Uniform half calf bindings with a single tooled label to each spine between raised bands with compartments lined with gilt. Bindings rubbed with some discolouration to spines, boards scuffed, minor shelf wear. Joints all very good or better with all boards securely attached. Top page edges a little dulled else very good. Bookplate to ffep verso of each volume with ink ownership inscription to front pastedowns. Text blocks toned throughout. Endpapers foxed else generally clean through the text blocks. pp.155-158 misbound in fourth volume resulting in a non-uniform fore edge.
