2 volumes. iv, (9)-360; iv, (3)-330 pp. (8vo) original green cloth, publisher's emblem in blind at center of covers, spines lettered and decorated in gilt. Custom chemises and two compartment morocco-backed slipcase. First Edition.
First issue, with page number in the wrong corner of the page at Vol. 1, p. 157 & Vol. 2, p. 34. One of the most widely read American novels of the nineteenth-century, The Wide, Wide World established Susan Warner as the nation's preeminent sentimental novelist. Bearing Warner's pseudonym Elizabeth Wetherell, the novel spawned a series of similar works published by “the author of The Wide, Wide World,” a contrivance that would allowed Warner, as one of America's first bestselling writers, to largely maintain her anonymity. Noted for its accurate portrayal of the social limitations imposed upon nineteenth-century women, The Wide, Wide World traces the maturation of a young girl, Ellen Montgomery, from childhood to adolescence. The work is considered one of the earliest examples of the domestic novel—a genre focused on the lives of ordinary women -- that became extremely fashionable after 1850. Frequently dismissed by twentieth-century critics as overly sentimental, the novel was “rediscovered” more than a century after its first publication by feminist scholars who see it as a fine example of popular literature written by women. The Wide, Wide World remained in print for almost 80 years and was widely translated. In 1987, after decades of public neglect, the novel was reissued by the Feminist Press in an enlarged edition that featured a concluding chapter written by Warner but dropped by her original publisher. Peter Parley to Penrod, p. 4.