TREMAINE, or the man of refinement... by WARD, Robert Plumer, 1765-1846 - 1825

London: Henry Colburn. 1825. Hardcover. Second edition, same year as the first. Three volumes, published anonymously. Contemporary half calf and marbled boards, morocco spine labels, raised bands, lettered in gilt. pp xii, 344 + engraved frontispiece.; (2), (384); (2), (381), [1], (2, ads). Sprinkled page edges. Bound without the half titles that were in Vols. II and III and without the ads at rear of Vol. II. Spines have slight rubbing at ends, with small corner chips at heads, some rubbing, corner chipped from volume number label of Vol. II; some rubbing and partial cracks to joints; abrasion to one outer corner; rubbing to boards; glue spots and small paper remains in corners of pastedowns; frontispiece has offset onto the title page; inner hinges partially cracked, making the joins tender but holding. Armorial bookplates "Alex. Trotter, Esq., of Dreghorn". In all, generally a VG set, text quite clean and unworn. Sadleir 3301. Wolff 7031. "The work had been edited by Colburn's reader P. S. Patmore, who some two years later, their mutual identities now disclosed, became Ward's literary adviser and close friend. Tremaine was in essence a didactic work, in parts resembling a theological tract. Charles Tremaine is a dandy who flees fashionable society and a short-lived parliamentary career for his country estate. This life too he finds unsatisfactory. Protracted exchanges follow between Tremaine and a neighbouring clergyman, Dr Evelyn, on such themes as deism, free will, and the problem of evil. Tremaine, whose ideas contain many of the assumptions of eighteenth-century philosophes, is gradually won over to orthodox Christianity and the hand of Evelyn's daughter Georgina. The novel had drawn a flattering portrait of fashionable society and was an immediate success, selling 1500 copies in three weeks. It was a pioneer of the silver fork genre, Michael Sadleir calling it ‘the chief impulse to Vivian Grey’ and ‘the inspiration of the two most influential novelists of the 'thirties and 'forties’." (DNB). Ward was, in addition to being a novelist, a barrister and politician. was an English barrister, politician, and novelist. George Canning said that his law books were as pleasant as novels, and his novels as dull as law books. Trotter was Secretary to Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty 1804-05. ; 12mo .