Canterbury tales For The year 1797. -

[so volume one; other volumes omit For The year 1797, and instead have: Volume the second; Third; Fourth; Fifth] By Harriet [Sophia; Sophia and Harriet; Harriet; Harriet] Lee. London: Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-row, [so volumes one to three; volume four has: G. and J. Robinson; volume five: Geo. Wilkie and John Robinson, No.57; And Geo. Robinson, No.25, Paternoster-row] 1797 [1798; 1799; 1801; 1805]. 5 Vols., demy 8vo format (volume one watermarked 1795, volume two 1797, volume three 1798, the others not watermarked); half-title not called for in volume one, not present, possibly not called for in other volumes; pp.190 and 330 in volume one (correctly) blank; Erratum at foot of last leaf of text in volume two; leaf bearing a five entry Errata at end of volume four; pp.xxiii+[i (blank)]+396; [ii]+564; [ii]+522; [ii]+490+[ii]; [ii]+528; A8, a4, B - I, K - U, X, Z, Aa - Bb8, C6; [A]1, B - I, K - U, X - Z, Aa - Ii, Kk - Nn8, O2; [A]1, B - I, K - U, X - Z, Aa - Ii, Kk8, Ll5; [A]1, B - I, K - U, X - Z, 2A - 2H8, 2I6; [A]1, B - I, K - U, X - Z, Aa - Ii, Kk - Ll8; contemporary full natural calf ruled gilt on sides and spine, spine with five raised bands, red lettering- and numbering-pieces, edges of boards tooled gilt, inner dentelles blind; sprinkled burnished edges; end-papers faced brown. Calf darkened on spines and a little stained or spotted on sides; one numbering-piece lacking and two others chipped at corner, not touching the legend; front board to volume two neatly re-attached; a couple of unobtrusive repairs at head or tail of joints in other volumes, and small nick to headband of volume five; in volume one, large blank lower fore-corner torn from Y1, just touching one letter of text, and small blank lower fore-corner torn from Y7; small hole (an original paper flaw) in Y4, with loss of part of one letter of text; faint stain to blank lower fore-corner of T1 and T2 in volume three; strip torn from blank upper margin of B4 in volume four, and small hole (an original paper flaw) in 2F3, with no loss of text; small hole (an original paper flaw) to blank top margin of P7 and Bb8 in volume five; a very little light foxing or other small marks passim; otherwise a very nice, crisp, copy. Complete sets as here are rare. An early attempt, taking its hint from Chaucer, to provide a frame that would link up a series of stories and short novels, which perhaps in turn gave the idea to Dickens and Lever for their similar experiments, ‘Master Humphrey’s Clock’ and ‘Our Mess’. The first volume begins with a scene-setting introduction by The Poet, who also tells the second story, and reappears at the end of the third volume, where he signs himself ‘S.L.’ to complete the design. Volume one contains:- The Traveller’s Tale: Montford; The Poet’s Tale: Arundel; The Frenchman’s Tale: Constance; and The Old Woman’s Tale: Lothaire: a Legend; volume two:- The Young Lady’s Tale: The Two Emilys; and volume three:- The Officer’s Tale: William Cavendish; and The Clergyman’s Tale: Henry. This completes the original design, and The Poet, in signing off, confesses that the whole thing was a [day-]dream, adding “if you should find this as pleasant as I have done, why we may henceforward recite tales without going to Canterbury”. Volume four commences with ‘The Poet’s Address’ in which he picks up on this, remarking: “Should you be good-naturedly disposed, you will not inquire minutely where the travellers were picked up by whom the following stories were related; but will continue to ramble on, with me, through the regions of imagination, without much anxiety as to the object of the journey, provided the road be but pleasant.” Volume five makes no reference at all to the original characters, and links with the rest by nothing more than its title and the headings of the stories. Volume four contains:- The German’s Tale: Kruitzner (which became the source for Byron’s ‘Werner’); The Scotsman’s Tale: Claudina; and volume five, after an introduction unrelated to anything in the first four volumes:- The Landlady’s Tale; The Friend’s Tale; and The Wife’s Tale. The first three volumes are not that uncommon, whilst the fourth volume is scarce in any original format edition, though these four were all reprinted at the time. The fifth volume was not immediately reprinted, and appears to be very scarce indeed. Even more so are complete sets, with all the volumes in the first edition, COPAC and ESTC recording between them copies only at the British Library in Great Britain, and Duke University in the U.S.A. In addition to the printed list of errata present in volumes two and four, the following have been noted in pencil in this copy: volume three, p.216, l.7, for ‘lifeless’ read ‘senseless’; volume four, p.384, l.8, for ‘your’ read ‘the’ and after ‘recollection’ insert ‘of you’, and p.347, l.9, for ‘pointed’ read ‘point’. ESTC, T142428; NCBEL, 2: 1013, erroneously listing the work as ‘5 vols. 1797 - 1801’; Block, p.135, giving the title as in the first volume, and erroneously listing all five volumes as 1797; Summers, p.258, giving the dates correctly as here and noting that the series was reprinted in 1837 and 1838 as volumes 12 and 13 of Bentley’s Standard Novels, with a new Preface by Harriet Lee in which she identifies Sophia as the author of The Introduction, The Young Lady’s Tale, and The Clergyman’s Tale, the rest being by herself; not in Rothschild. All books listed by Robert Temple are first editions unless otherwise stated.