Item #20744 Memoirs of Europe, Towards the Close of the Eighth Century. Written by Eginardus, Secretary and Favourite to Charlemagne; and done into English by the Translator of the New Atalantis. English Fiction, Mary de la Riviere or Delariviere Manley.

Memoirs of Europe, Towards the Close of the Eighth Century. Written by Eginardus, Secretary and Favourite to Charlemagne; and done into English by the Translator of the New Atalantis.

London: Printed for John Morphew, near Stationers-Hall, 1710. First edition. 8vo (7.25 x 4.25 inches), contemporary Cambridge panelled calf, [16], 319, 332-380, [4] pages. Somewhat bumped and rubbed, with a little nibbling from the lower edge of the rear board; a little general soiling; the final key sprung; in very good condition. Item #20744

A popular novel from Delariviere Manley, “ostensibly the story of Europe in the time of Charlemagne, but once again a series of scandalous political narratives. . . . Here, DM returns from political history to the surer ground of sexual scandal in order to hit her political arrows home” (Todd 439). The follow-up to Manley’s similarly scandalous Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality, of Both Sexes, from the New Atalantis, 1709; this Memoirs of Europe proved sufficiently popular that it was published in a two volume second edition. This copy with the two leaf “Key to the Third Volume of the Atalantis, call’d Memoirs of Europe” [London, 1712?] bound in the rear, with a few of the blanks completed in contemporary autograph; the ESTC notes two versions of the key, this version with “call’d” as the final word of the second line. Early attractive Smythe Barbavilla Irish armorial bookplate mounted to the front pastedown. McBurney, A Check List of English Prose Fiction 1700-1739, 51. Early paper label ink autograph shelfmark on the spine.

Price: $350.00