L'ORPHELINE ANGLOISE

Four volumes in two, 12mo, pp. 241, [1] table; 248, [2] table; 214, [1] table, [1] blank; 261, [1] table; with engraved frontispiece to each volume, included in each case in pagination; old stamp "G.S Baechingen an der Brenz" on title-page of volumes one and three, old ownership signature "d' Forstner" on title-page of volume one; aside from some sporadic light browning, clean and fresh throughout; in contemporary German calf-backed boards, spine with raised bands and paper labels with titles in a contemporary hand; light wear, but an attractive copy.

A good copy, in an attractive contemporary German binding, of this early French adaptation of The History of Charlotte Summers, the Fortunate Parish Girl, which had first appeared in English in 1749 and is often attributed, probably erroneously, to Sarah Fielding.

The basics of the plot would feel familiar to any reader of Tom Jones, and the eponymous heroine can be seen perhaps as a sister to the foundling of that novel. Certainly, there are many allusions throughout the book to Fielding's novel; indeed, the Avertissement here is quite explicit in aiming at the same readership: 'Bornons-nous donc à dire, que notre but, ainsi que dans Tom Jones, en accomodant cet Ouvrage sans le dénaturer au gout François, ne tend qu'a marquer au Public une reconnoissance légitime, en tâchant d'ajouter à ses plaisirs'. This French version was also the basis of a Russian translation, which appeared in 1763.

The frontispieces to each volume are in imitation of those which appeared in the first French translation (Londres et se trouve à Paris chez Rollin & Prault, 1751). The present copy may have come through the library of Countess Franziska von Hohenheim (1748-1811), who acquired the estate at Bächingen an der Brenz in Bavaria in 1790 on becoming Duchess of Württemberg.

ETSC: T229884, records copies at the BL and the Silesian Library in Katowice; OCLC adds the Swedish Royal Library, the BnF, and the Zentralbibliothek at Solothurn.