FIELDING (Henry): — Amelia.

London: Printed for A. Millar..., 1752. FIRST EDITION, second state. 4 volumes. 12mo, 161 x 97 mms., pp. [vi] vii - xii, 285 [286 blank]; [ii] iii - viii, 262 [263 adverts, 264 blank]; [ii] iii - ix blank], 323 [324 blank]; [ii] iii - vii [viii blank], 296, with the faulty text \"the at Folly\" changed to \"at the Folly\" in volume 3, page 191. contemporary calf, recent reback in later calf, red morocco label, new end-papers; some marginal worming in volume 1, several leaves throughout both volumes closely shaved without loss, but a reasonably good set of Fielding's last novel. Although the date on the title-page is 1752, the novel was published on 19 December 1751. Many of the comments focused on the fate of Amelia's \"lovely Nose,\" which was \"beat all to pieces,\" when a chariot overturned. Broken, ruined, or missing noses and their iconographic portrayal often associated the bearer or the nose, or the not-nose, with venereal disease. Fielding's narrative makes no mention of a surgical repair to the those. The author and botanist John Hill (1714 - 1775) attacked Amelia in the London Daily Advertiser on 8 January 1752 where he claimed that the book's title character \"could charm the World without the Help of a Nose.\" Rothschild, 853.