Domestic manners of the Americans

London: Whittaker, Treacher & Co. Ave Maria Lane, 1832. First edition, 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. [iii]-xi, [1], 336; v, [1], 271, [1] ads; half-titles not preserved, 24 lithograph plates; slightly later tan straight-grain morocco, gilt-decorated spine in 5 compartments, gilt-lettered direct in 1; joints restored, extremities worn; previous owner's' bookplates; a good copy, or better. Frances Trollope (1780-1863, mother of Anthony Trollope, the novelist) had spent four years in the United States, "travelled in nearly every part of it, associated with all classes, and unremittently exercised a keen faculty for observation. If [her book] fails to offer a completely authentic view of American manners, the reason is no want of candour or any invincible prejudice, but the tendency, equally visible in her novels, to dwell upon the more broadly humorous, and consequently the more vulgar, aspects of things" (DNB). The lithographs reflect this attitude and are particularly amusing. Four editions of Mrs. Trollope's work appeared in London in its first year of publication, only the first with the pagination as here. Howes T-357; Sadleir 3218.