£500
FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, INSCRIBED BY THE TRANSLATOR, 3 vols., 12mo, pp. [iv], 410;[iv], 388; [iv], 325, [1]. Half calf, marbled boards, spines divided by quadruple gilt rules, lettered in gilt. A touch of spotting, small tears to blank edge of two leaves. Marbled paper chipped to edges, spines darkened, one joint cracked. Ownership inscription and bookplates of Conyngham to front pastedowns, inscription ‘from the translator’ to title-page of first volume.
The first English edition of the prolific German novelist Carl Spindler's (1796-1855) early historical novel, published originally as 'Der Bastard' in Zurich in 1826. This copy is inscribed by the translator, Lord Albert Conyngham (1805-1860), an English politician and diplomat who served as an attache in Berlin and Vienna in the 1820s. The Conyngham bookplate suggests he gave it to a member of his family.
The Edinburgh Review praised the translation while excoriating Spindler's morals: 'What a picture-gallery of murderers, traitors, adulterers, ravishers, for instance, do the male characters in the Natural Son present... Adultery and incest, ingredients generally considered too strong for most fictions, are to Spindler things of course; a murder with him is a matter of three lines; he absolutely thrives on poison like Mithridates himself'. Spindler's twisty tale has romantic and gothic overtones: the titular 'bastard', Archibald, having had dogs set upon him by his legitimate brother following their father's sudden death, ends up in the care of a witch (whose character was reportedly plagiarised by Bulwer-Lytton in The Last Days of Pompeii) who had murdered his mother. Various passionate adventures follow, among which he ends up placed by John Dee in the court of Rudolph II under a false name, escapes execution, and eventually revisits his brother under a solemn vow to drink his blood.
