Tales and Novels In ten volumes

FIRST THUS. Ten volumes. 8vos; each volume with engraved title page vignette and frontispiece, plus two additional plates, excepting vol. X (two plates only, as issued). Re-backed: half calf, original marbled boards, gilt ruled bands to spines, recent red morocco titles labels lettered and ruled in gilt. Marbled edges and endpapers. Light foxing, including engravings. Anthony Musgrave's armorial ex libris to front pastedown of each volume (except vols. III and VII), "A. Musgrave" in sepia ink to recto of first blank of vol. V. Edgewear, corners bruised, rubbed, minor burn to rear fep of vol. VII. A number of vols. with small losses to endpapers and splits at hinges, likely from re-backing, all bindings firm. Occasional pencil scoring, else, clean and tidy. A quietly pleasing set of the later Bohn edition of Edgeworth's Tales and Novels. Maria Edgeworth (1768�1849) was a prolific novelist (the most commercially successful of her age), educationalist and intellectual, born into an Irish land-owning family with property in Co. Longford. Following an unhappy childhood in England, she moved with her father (the "libidinous and abstracted," Richard Lovell Edgeworth) and her step-mother to Edgeworthstown (previously Mostrim) in 1782. This relocation "renewed the bond between father and daughter, leading to a formidable intellectual partnership of which she was the more able and nimble mind" (ODNB), though her father would censor her work. Edgeworth was involved in the estate's management, acting as rent clerk, work which is "reflected in the detail and colour of her novels dealing with Ireland, notably Castle Rackrent (1800), Ennui (1809), The Absentee (1812), and Ormond (1817)" (ibid), all collected here. She also educated her thirteen step-siblings and wrote for children.