First edition. 3 vols. 8vos. Vol. 1: Pp. [iv], 324, [12, ads]. Vol. 2: [iv], 319, [1]. Vol. 3: [iv], 350, [1]. Quarter-bound contemporary black cloth, over pebble-grain paper boards; with gilt titles on dark green morocco labels to spines; light green endpapers. No half-titles called for. With the publisher's 12 page catalogue to rear of vol. 1 in its earliest state dated January, 1853.
With the paper stamp of Fohkien Printing Office, Amoy [China], to paste-down endpapers and graceful, contemporary signatures to title pages, marginal tear to p.3/4 of vol. 1, not affecting text, hinges starting in places, marginal pencil jottings to a vol. 3 leaf. Internally bright and clean. A nice, fresh set, overall.
The author's third novel, a semi-autobiographical account of her time spent at finishing school in Brussels, and subsequently as a governess, saddled with the burden of unrequited love. An acute psychological study of loneliness and isolation, it was acclaimed by George Eliot as "a still more wonderful book than Jane Eyre," and by Virginia Woolf as "Brontë's finest novel." The two love interests are partially modelled on M. Constantin Héger – the boarding school's proprietor – and George Murray Smith, Brontë's publisher and one-time suitor.
[Parrish 95; Sadleir 349; Smith 6; Wolff 828.]