Ivanhoe: A Romance.
Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., 1820. First edition. Hardcover. This is the three-volume first edition, first issue, all three volumes in the publisher's elusive original bindings. Each volume remains, as issued, in the publisher's blue-green boards with drab brown spines and printed, paper spine labels, the contents with all edges untrimmed. Consonant with first issue, pages 159-306 of Volume I are misnumbered as 151-298. The set is housed in a vintage cloth solander, with gently rounded spine and patterned paper-lined interior.
Condition of the volumes is very good minus, its virtue being the wearied originality of its aesthetic, not its perfection. The bindings, including their original spine labels, are all square and intact, though most certainly appreciably soiled, toned, and worn. Wear and overall appearance is consistent across the three volumes, intimating a lifelong, rather than assembled, set. The contents of the first volume show moderate spotting within, the third volume with lesser spotting, the second volume with almost none. All three volumes feature the same armorial bookplate affixed to the front pastedown. The same initials and surname are inked to the half titles recto of the first and third volumes. All three volumes are complete. The contents of the first and second volumes remain firmly attached to the binding. In the third volume, pages 3-16 and 353-371 are tender, still marginally attached by the upper binding cords, and the final blank is loose. The clearly vintage Solander case is separated at the right front hinge, making two pieces of the case, with overall wear and scuffing; its virtue is not aesthetic, but rather that it has long done, and continues to do, its job of protecting the books within.
First a solicitor and a poet, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) came to novels comparatively late. But between 1814 and his death in 1832, he made up for lost time; he published twenty-three works of fiction. Twenty of these twenty-three novels were set in the past, each in a different period, pioneering the modern manifestation of the "historical fiction" genre. Arguably most enduringly popular among Scott's novels is Ivanhoe.
We could say that Ivanhoe is the author’s story of a dispossessed knight who, through the offices of a just king, is able to marry his love. But that rather undersells the story and its influence. In addition to being a compelling tale, Ivanhoe proved deeply influential. English theologian John Henry Newman CO (1801–1890) credited Ivanhoe with having “first turned men's minds in the direction of the Middle Ages". Ivanhoe also influenced popular perceptions of historical figures including King Richard I, his brother, Prince – and later King - John, and Robin Hood. Though it is set in the distant past and its titular character is a chivalric archetype, it has been said that “Ivanhoe… has a political modernity which makes it one of the most remarkable novels of the nineteenth century.”
Even the physical format was influential; Ivanhoe was published in the three-volume “triple-decker” style popularized by Scott’s Scottish publisher, Archibald Constable, and which became a standard for fiction published in Britain through most of the 19th century.
References: Todd & Bowden, Sir Walter Scott: A Bibliographical History 1796-1832; ODNB. Item #008481
Price: $5,000.00