FIELDING, Henry. — Amelia.

London: Printed for A. Millar, 1752 [1751]. Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 12mo. 4 vols. Vol. 1: xii, 285p; A6 B-N12 (wanting final blank leaf N12). Vol. 2: viii, 262, [2]p; A4 B-M12 (M12 present with Universal-Register-Office advert on M12r). Vol. 3: ix, 323p; A6 (wanting the blank leaf A6) B-O12 P6. Vol. 4: vii, 296p; A4 B-N12 O4. 19th-century calf with stamps 'Bound by Cecil & Larkins for E.W. Stibbs'. Covers decorated with a triple-fillet gold border, a small gold fleuron at each corner; gold-tooled spines with red leather title labels and green leather volume number labels; gilt turn-ins; yellow-edged leaves; marbled blue endpapers. Slight rubbing at corners, some wear at joints and at head and foot of spines. Joints loose and strengthened sympathetically with narrow strips of blue buckram to match the marbled endpapers. Very occasional faint spot on a couple of pages in each volume. Small paper flaw in outer margin of pages 1-2 in vol. 2 (not affecting text); likewise in outer margins of pages 1-4 of vol. 3 (not affecting text); two clean tears in pages 293-6 of vol. 4 (carefully repaired and with no loss of text). Bookplate on all front pastedowns of [Sir] Henry Francis Redhead Yorke (1842-1914, midshipman, Director of Victualling at the Admiralty), designed by Harry Soane, London. ***** First edition (2nd impression, with misprint “the at Folly” corrected to “at the Folly” in vol. 3, page 191) of Amelia, Fielding s favourite child , a novel of social protest and an experiment in new techniques, especially in irony and in subtle characterisation. Robert Alter argues that the novel pioneers the masterful interlocking of separate lives through shared experience that gives Middlemarch such remarkable coherence - Fielding's problem novel in his Fielding and the nature of the novel , pp.141-178. The Rothschild Library: a catalogue, 853. H. Fielding, Amelia, edited by M.C. Battestin (Appendix VII: Bibliographical descriptions, pp.583-4). ESTC t089846.