Guy Livingstone, or, 'Thorough'

First Edition. Very scarce first novel, anonymously published [Wolff #3973). This is one of the key books for an appreciation of mid-Victorian England, the prime example of what became known as the school of muscular Christianity in fiction.

Much-lampooned, it has been rediscovered by successive generations curious about the workings of the Victorian psyche, the exercise of power and notions of masculinity. It both served as a model for Ouida's fiction and acted as a spur for Hughes to produce 'Tom Brown's Schooldays' as a critique of the prevalent public school ethos. In the original blue, ripple-grained cloth with decorative blind-stamping to covers and gilt spine lettering. 375pp text +4pp integral ads at rear.

Unlike Wolff's copy it has no half-title. Later sepia-coated endpapers at front with armorial bookplate to front pastdown. Original terracotta endpapers at rear.

Slight water-staining to edge of front cover and general superficial edge-rubbing. However, a perfectly sound and internally very clean copy of a book almost never seen in first edition and the only copy I have handled in 25 years of bookselling.