The Amber Witch: the most interesting trial for witchcraft ever known

London: George Slater, 1849. Hardcover. Fair. 24mo 5" - 6" tall. A perfectly serviceable reference copy; nothing fancy, but complete and sturdy. Publisher's original brown cloth, gilt illustration and letter to front cover, spine, moderate rubbing to extremities, blind-stamped decorations to front and rear covers, bumping to spine head and foot, and sunning of cloth at spine to light brown. Translated from the original German of Abraham Schweidler as edited by W. Meinhold, allegedly from a "defective manuscript." This copy is an early reprint of the first English edition, which came out via John Murray in 1844. The foremost authority of supernatural fiction, E.F. Bleiler writes (in The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1983) "A minor masterpiece, and still the best novel about witchcraft." The work was originally published in Germany as Maria Schweidler, "die Bernsteinhexe," in 1838; it alleged to be based on an actual 17th-century chronicle that had been edited by the daughter, Mary Meinhold, of the man, Abraham Meinhold, who claimed to have discovered an old, damaged manuscript written by a 17th-century minister, based upon some old papers found in an old church in Koserow, Germany. The fabricated manuscript fooled all the critics and reviewers but became instantly popular. It was written also in "17th-century style," or an approximation thereof, and only years later did the author admit the literary hoax. The story was set during the Thirty Years' War and involved Reverend Abraham Schweidler's near loss of his daughter, Maria, to the ensorceling of a rejected suitor but who accused Maria of herself practicing the Dark Arts. Threatened legally and faced with the likelihood of terrible torture, she confesses, though innocent. A young nobleman rescues her on her way to the stake at which she is to be burned. He loves her, she is innocent, he rescues her. London Quarterly Review noted, "We have read nothing, for a long time, in fiction or in history, which has so completely riveted and anchored our interest, as this little volume. It is worth (we can give no higher praise) of De Foe!" Well, there you go. 262 pp. plus a range of publisher ads.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.