Padhre na Moulh, by BANIM, John (1798-1842).DEFAUCONPRET, Auguste-Jean-Baptiste (1767-1843).

scarce French edition of Irish novel
BANIM, John (1798-1842).
DEFAUCONPRET, Auguste-Jean-Baptiste (1767-1843).

Padhre na Moulh, ou le Mendiant des Ruines, Roman Irlandais par M. Banim. Traduit de l’Anglais par M. A.-J.-B. Defauconpret, Traducteur des romans historiques de Sir Walter Scott. Tome Premier [-Second]. Paris, Gosselin, 1829.

First Edition in French. Two volumes, 12mo, (162 x 96mm), pp. [iv], 234; [iv], 216, in contemporary quarter sheep over diagonally striped grey boards, vellum tips, spines ruled, numbered and lettered in gilt, edges sprinkled, with Anthony Surtees’ bookplate.

The scarce first edition in French of John Banim’s novel, Peter of the Castle, first published in Dublin in 1826. The translation is by the travel writer and anglophile Auguste-Jean-Baptiste Defauconpret, now mostly remembered as the translator of Walter Scott’s novels.
‘The Banims may be justly called the first national novelists of Ireland... Their ambition was to do for Ireland what Scott, by his Waverley Novels, had done for Scotland — to make their countrymen known with their national traits and national customs and to give a true picture of the Irish character with its bright lights and deep shadows’ (Mathew Flaherty, The Catholic Encyclopedia, New York 1907).

OCLC lists Trinity College Dublin and Brigham Young only. The British Library also has a copy.

See Block p. 13; not in Sadleir.

Keywords: English Literature
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