£8,500
FIRST EDITION, 8vo, pp. [iv], 390 + frontispiece. Near-contemporary half calf by J. Mackenzie & Son, marbled boards. A couple of minor spots. Expertly rebacked to style preserving earlier label, corners neatly restored. Armorial bookplate of Thomas Philip Earl de Grey of Wrest Park to pastedown.
A very nice copy of a black tulip of Scottish literature. Hogg's 'Justified Sinner' was a notable flop in its first appearance - only around 300 copies of the original print run are thought to have been sold. Leftover sheets were reissued a few years later with a new title-page, to no greater success. The text was then heavily abridged for inclusion in editions of Hogg's collected works, and the full version not again printed until the 1890s. But underneath the neglect it became enormously influential - most notably on Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - with its meta-textual presentation far ahead of its time. Copies are now almost impossible to obtain, especially anything like a contemporary binding.
