Magical Tome

The outer archives are busy
Two volumes bound in one small 8vo. pp. [4], 213; pp. 236. Apparently lacking title page of vol. 2. A novel by Pierre Auguste Callet and Javelin Pagnon (both poets of St-Etienne, translator and editor respectively of Chatterton’s Oeuvres complètes, 1839), supposedly translated from a Sir Walter Scott manuscript in the collection of “Lord P—,” deriving from that of James Gordon of Huntly-House, London. This appears to be the earliest dated book edition, not found in the usual catalogues, which record among them another Brussels edition of 1841, Paris editions (by Desessart, who published the 1839 Chatterton) of 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1844, and translations into Swedish, Dutch, and Italian (but never English) of 1841. There is also an opera version, by Giovanni Pacini (1848). See also J.-M. Quérard, Les supercheries littéraires dévoilées; seconde édition, considérablement augmentée, publiée par MM. Gustave Brunet et Pierre Jannet. Paris, 1882, III, pp. 646-47; J. A. Farrer, Literary forgeries. London and New York, 1907, p. 269. The persistent catalogue note that ascribes the ‘translation’ to A.J.B. Defauconpret (the imaginary translator of Walladmor) rests on a misreading of the sly self-revealing joke at p. 5 of the ‘Avertissement.’ Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.
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Pacing
Horror / Dark Elements
Romance
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LGBTQ+ Representation
Social & Political Themes in Stories