The Fairy Bower, Or the History of a Month A Tale for Young People

Mozley, Harriet Elizabeth

Edité par James Burns, Portman Street; and Henry Mozley and Sons, Derby, London, 1841

A propos de cet article

386 pages; Contemporary green half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, raised bands, gilt lettered dark red leather label in the second panel, gilt tooled ornaments in the others, plain endpapers. Moderate rubbing and wear, especially to the corners and spine ends, some rubbing along the fore-edges of the boards, and bumping to the corners of the rear cover, especially at the top. This wear notwithstanding, the binding is sound and still handsome, with strong hinges, both inner and outer. The wood-engraved frontispiece by Orrin Smith is moderately foxed (and the leaf on which it was printed shows a faint tide mark -- no evidence of damp or staining to the other text leaves or the binding). Faint, neat ink signature on the front free-endpaper [Lucia B. Phillips]. The very scarce first edition of a book for young children by Harriet Elizabeth Mozley [1803-52], who was the sister of John Henry Newman. Harriet Elizabeth married one of Newman's close colleagues and fellow Tractarian Thomas Mozley [1806-93] in 1836. Thomas Mozley was the son and brother of booksellers, studied at Charterhouse School and afterwards went on to Oriel College, Oxford in 1825, where he became a student, and eventually a very close friend, of John Henry Newman. In 1831 Mozley was ordained. He was a strong supporter of the Tractarian movement, and succeeded Newman, his mentor, as editor of the Tractarian's publication, the 'British Critic,' in 1841. By 1843, Thomas Mozley was poised on the point of conversion to Roman Catholicism. His great friend, John Henry Newman, urged him to suspend this radical step for two years for serious spiritual reflection. As it happened, Mozley decided to remain an Anglican, but, in one of those ironies with which history abounds, John Henry Newman spent those same pair of years with his own spiritual decision, and converted to Catholicism in 1845, becomming, eventually, a Cardinal of the Church and the most famous English Catholic of the nineteenth century. Newman's sister Harriet, the author of 'The Fairy Bower' -- is referred to by the Stanford Companion to Victorian Literature as "Important in liberating children's writers from ultra-evangelical didacticism." This aim is made quite explicit in the author's "Advertisement" (on the first leaf following the title page): "It is hoped that the following little Tale may be looked upon as an attempt rather to represent characters as they really are, than to exhibit moral portraiture for unreserved imitation or avoidance." Following this first edition, an American edition was published by D. Appleton in 1847, and a second edition of 'The Fairy Bower' was published in 1848 (by the family firm of her husband's brothers). This first edition is distinctly scarce, especially in commerce. See OCLC: 44442893 [Four locations worldwide: UCLA; Univ. Connecticut; Univ. of Florida; Oxford University]. The British Library also has a copy. Osborne Coll., p. 918 (confirming the identification of the anonymous author). Mrs. Mozley wrote another book the following year for somewhat older children: "The Lost Brooch." She died in 1852; Thomas Mozley remarried in 1861, and wrote a history of the Oxford movement and his own part in it -- 'Reminiscences, Chiefly of Oriel, and the Oxford Movement, published in 1882.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Fairy Bower, Or the History of a Month A Tale for Young People
• Éditeur: James Burns, Portman Street; and Henry Mozley and Sons, Derby, London
• Date de parution: 1841
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: First Edition; First Printing.
• État de l'article: Very Good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Literature
  • 19th Century
  • Childrens and Juvenile