Isabella Kelly - Eva - 1803

Kelly, Isabella; M. D. G… (translation). Eva.

Complete work in three volumes.

Paris, Maradan libraire. An XI (1803). In-12. Bindings half-brown calf with corners of the period with smooth backs adorned with double gold fillets, fleurons, the title and the volume numbering. Uniform bindings. Demonville et sœurs imprimeurs.

Original edition (and the only edition in French) complete in three volumes of this novel published in 1799 in England. Bindings uniform in decent condition, loss at the tail of the spine of volume 3, rubbing and various epidermures (see numerous photos), some corners partly split, traces of worming on the covers. Interiors in good condition.

Isabella Kelly, née Fordyce, also Isabella Hedgeland (1759–1857) was a Scottish novelist and poet. Her novels are likened to those of Ann Radcliffe.
Kelly's ten novels met popular tastes with seemingly haunted abbeys, cross-dressing as a means of disguise, and the fruits of impurity. Critics have noted a similarity with Ann Radcliffe's work in her approach to the Gothic novel.

In Eva, Kelly was one of many authors of the time, including Matthew Lewis, to address bachelorhood, through the character of Agatha, who refuses to enter the convent because it is cruelly oppressive to deprive women “the normal joys of the home and of children.”

Rare original French edition of this Isabella Kelly novel, which can be linked to those of Ann Radcliffe.