The Man of Feeling.

London: J. M. Dent & Co.,, 1893. First Cubitt Cooke edition, number 50 of 100 copies printed on large paper. William Cubitt Cooke (1866–1951) was an accomplished watercolourist and draughtsman, chiefly remembered for illustrating Dent's groundbreaking edition of Jane Austen's novels in 1982. The Man of Feeling was Mackenzie's first work, a sentimental novel originally published anonymously in 1771. Mackenzie's years in London "furnished some of the material for his protagonist's adventures, which are described in a series of loosely linked fragments. Harley, with his ideal sensibility, frequently sheds tears over the misfortunes of the people he meets, and his innocence is constantly contrasted with the worldliness of others. The novel became the most popular of its decade... Labelled a 'man of feeling' after the novel's publication, Mackenzie was indeed a man of extraordinary sensibility, and he is generally known as the arch-sentimentalist of Scottish literature" (ODNB). Octavo. Original cream cloth, gilt lettering to spine and front cover. Lithograph frontispiece and 3 similar plates by William Cubitt Cooke, title page printed in red and brown, wood engraved head- and tailpieces. Spine darkened, mainly peripheral toning and a few small marks to covers, a touch of wear to corners, offsetting to endpapers and occasionally to contents, intermittent spotting to margins, small worm-trail to last three leaves and rear pastedown, otherwise internally bright. A very good copy.