COLLINS, Wilkie. Basil. London, Sampson Low & Co. 1862.
8vo. Original pink cloth, stamped in blind to covers and gilt to spine; pp. (1, frontispiece), 344, (16, adverts dated January 1862); a little water damage to frontispiece, spine faded, otherwise an internally clean and sturdy copy with the bookplate of John Martineau to front paste-down endpaper.
Early single volume edition of one of Collins' first novels. Mrs Oliphant, legendary contemporary critic with the cold solemnity and looming inevitability of a glacier, later called the novel 'a revolting Story', something that haunted Collins to his obituary, though this could nowadays be seen as something of a recommendation.
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