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Synopsis

By charlotte dacre (better known as rosa matilda). with an introduction by the rev. montague summers. this edition, printed by the whitefriars press, is limited to...500 copies on machine-made paper, numbered 101-600: of which this is number 225.

Item Description

8vo. 9.25 x 6.75 inches. xxvii + [v] + 264 pp. Title page in red and black. Includes facsimile of 1806 title page. Bound in original brown cloth, gilt. Deckled fore and lower edges. A very good clean copy. Illustrated by engraved portrait frontispiece of author, with facsimile signature, Rosa Matilda. Decorated by publisher's device on title page. Limited private press edition of Gothic novel by Charlotte Dacre (nee King) (c.1780?-1825), who wrote under the pseudonym, Rosa Matilda and first published in 1806. The work was considered provocative at the time for its racial and religious overtones and strong sexually aggressive female characters. Edited by Montague Summers (1880-1948), who was ordained a deacon in the Church of England, but converted to Catholicism, although never officially holding office in the church. He pursued a career of teaching and literary scholarship, publishing on occult subjects and witchcraft and editing works of Gothic fiction like this title. Fortune Press was founded by Reginald Ashley Caton (1897-1971) in 1924, originally specialising in gay erotica before widening its scope.