A Nineteenth Century, and Familiar History of the Lives, Loves, & Misfortunes, of Abeillard and Heloisa, A Matchless Pair, who flourished in the twelfth century: A Poem, in Twelve Cantos. Illustrated with Ten Engravings. By Robert Rabelais, the Younger!

London: Printed for J. Bumpus..., 1819. 8vo, 227 x 137 mms., pp. xvii [xviii blank], 384, 10 engraved coloured plates from designs by Thurston, etched by Landseer, aquatinted by Lewis, with the frontispiece being plate 5, nine other engraved and coloured plates at pages 144, 193, 217, 224, 271, 272, 274, 291, and 359, original printed boards (soiled), uncut, some leaves unopened; front joint cracked, rear joint slightly cracked, edges worn. Robert Rabelais the Younger is, of course, a pseydonym. The work was noticed in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine: "Abeillad and Heloisa, a new and original didactive poem, is now in the press and will be published in a few days; called A Nineteenth Century and Familiar History of the Lives, Loves, & Misfortunes, of Abeillard and Heloisa, A Matchless Pair, who flourished in the twelfth century: A Poem, in Twelve Cantos. Illustrated with Ten Engravings. By Robert Rabelais, the Younger. The work is altogether historical, but the various elucidations may be deemed a material, matrimonial, comical, farcical, tragical, satirical, anecdotal, clerical, nautical, regimental, ethical, metaphysical, theological, philosophical, critical, political, and all the terminative faculty of als !" For further enlightenment, entertainment, and elucidation see Stephen J. Gertz's blog, Booktryst: http://www.booktryst.com/2014/01/a-19th-c-rare-book-with-worst-reviews.html, which concludes: "Rabelais the Younger! could have used a dose of Lithium to get through his mania. Readers will need a Valium to get through the booK." Obviously, every reader and every library MUST HAVE A COPY.