Sketches of Irish Character (Illustrated Victorian Edition)

HALL, Mrs. S. C. [Anna Maria Hall]. Sketches of Irish Character. Illustrated Edition. London: M. A. Nattali, 1844.

Large Octavo. Full dark green Morocco. Covers gilt-decorated. Spine with five raised bands, gilt-decorated compartments, titled in gilt. Elaborately gilt-decorated dentelles. All edges gilt. viii, 380pp. 29 B/W engravings throughout. Illustrated Edition.

Anna Maria Hall (1800–1881) was born in Dublin and left Ireland for England at the age of fifteen, but her native country remained the central and enduring subject of her long literary career. Her first Sketches of Irish Character, published in 1829, grew from a single short piece into a genuine literary sensation, immediately successful with both critics and the general public; a second series followed in 1831, fully equal to the first in its reception, and together the two series established Hall's reputation in England as the foremost interpreter of Irish rural life and character available to an English readership. Her subsequent works on Ireland, including Lights and Shadows of Irish Life (1838) and Stories of the Irish Peasantry (1840), along with the substantial three-volume Ireland: Its Scenery, Character, &c., produced jointly with her husband, the writer and editor Samuel Carter Hall, cemented her position as one of the most widely read chroniclers of Irish life in Victorian England.

Near fine. A beautifully preserved edition. Albeit for some faint markings to covers and occasional spotting internally, presents fine. Bookplate of Henry C. Stephens Finchley to front pastedown.

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Catalogue Number: HH000383