The Marble Faun: or, the Romance of Monte Beni.

HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel .

$1,500.00

Item Number: 119422

Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1860.

First edition, first issue, with 16-page catalog dated March, 1860 inserted at rear of Volume one of Hawthorne’s last major work of fiction. Octavo, original cloth, 2 volumes. In fine condition, from the library of noted book collector Henry Walker Bagley with his bookplate. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. BAL 7621. An exceptional example.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, “long recognized as one of the greatest of American writers,” first journeyed to Europe in 1853 as American Consul in Liverpool (Drabble, 443). After resigning his post he traveled to Rome, and his experiences there served as the inspiration for The Marble Faun, published in England as The Transformation; or, The Romance of Monte Beni. Preceded by the first English edition, although Blanck notes that “The Boston and the London publishers attempted to publish simultaneously, Ticknor & Fields setting their edition from advance sheets of the London edition… Contemporary notices indicate that the London edition was issued prior to the Boston edition but simultaneous publication may have occurred.”