THE QUAKER CITY; OR, THE MONKS OF MONK-HALL. A ROMANCE OF PHILADELPHIA LIFE, MYSTERY AND CRIME ...
Philadelphia: Published by the Author, and for Sale by All Booksellers, 1845. Small quarto, pp. [1] 2-494 [note: pages 5-314 are printed in double columns; pages 315-494 printed in a single column], inserted engraved frontispiece and engraved title leaf, mid-nineteenth century three-quarter pebbled calf and marbled boards, spine panel titled and ruled in gold, all edges marbled. First complete edition. A bibliographically complex book. Supposedly first published in ten paper-covered parts, but no complete set of parts published by G. B. Zieber exists. Examples of seven parts do exist. They are printed in double columns and paginated consecutively up to page 314. The following 180 pages of the published complete book are set in a single column and apparently had no previous parts publication. The edition in parts is dated 1844 on the title page, but a contract dated 31 March 1845 between Lippard and publisher G. B. Zieber indicates that Lippard was still writing the book. Before 5 May 1845 (the date of Lippard's introduction to this edition, which is also is copyright 1845), Lippard bought the existing plates and copyrights and commenced to reprint the book under his own name. According to Lippard, this edition was published in ten paper-covered parts and this copy appears to be bound from parts (evidence includes a bit of a blue wrapper adhered to the blind side of the frontispiece). Several one and two volume reprint editions were published by Lippard before Peterson of Philadelphia began publishing and reprinting his works in the 1840s. "... a handbook for Gothicism in all its most exaggerated forms." - Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 2-66. "Sensational expose novel in the manner of the French feuillleton novels (Sue and Hugo) and British counterparts. Crime and supernaturalism in early 19th century Philadelphia." - Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1027. "Lippard's sensational Philadelphia Gothic was first serialized in 1844-1845 and stands as a lurid example of the American Gothic spirit of the 1840s. Lippard allures and holds his readers by every repulsive means available. The result is a Gothic farrago of the Philadelphia underworld comparable to Victorian pulp Gothics. Monk Hall itself is an updated version of the infernal subterranean of the castle or abbey. Teeming with malicious creatures of every type and presided over by a crippled monster called Devilbug. Monk Hall also has a Gothic maiden-in-residence, Mabel Pyne. The plottings of Devilbug provide the occasion for live burials, necrophiliac love affairs, necromancy, satanic ritual, and other depravities embellished with nauseating scenes of Lippard's own. E. F. Bleiler's comment on the American Gothic extravaganza is severe but accurate: the novel is 'amusing in small doses, disgusting in large.' This judgment applies equally to Lippard's other Gothic endeavors, THE LADYE ANABEL; OR, THE DOOM OF THE POISONER (1844) and THE ENTRANCED; OR, THE WANDERER OF EIGHTEEN CENTURIES (1849)." - Frederick S. Frank, Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror (1999) 1-95. Wright (I) 1689. BAL 11773. Roger Butterfield, "Lippard and His Secret Brotherhood," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, July 1955, pp. 285-309. Small printed book label of early owner Len M. Frailey affixed to the front paste-down. Shallow loss to calf at upper spine end, boards lightly rubbed and scuffed, 11x45 mm chip to margin of the fourth leaf of signature 50, a few mild fox marks and mild tanning to a few signatures, a very good copy with a remarkably clean interior. A major American Gothic novel and a rare book. Enclosed in a custom velvet lined quarter leather clamshell box. (21703). Item #21703
Price: $4,500.00