[Rarebooks] fa: GENUINE AND IMPARTIAL MEMOIRS OF ELIZABETH CANNING 1754 - First Detective Novel?

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 10. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/yxksmqxl

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[Anonymous:] Genuine and Impartial Memoirs of Elizabeth Canning, Containing a complete History of that unfortunate Girl, from her Birth to the Present Time, and particularly every remarkable Occurrence from the Day of her Absence, January 1, 1753, to the Day of her receiving Sentence, May 30, 1754. In which is included, the whole Tenor of the Evidence given against, and for her, on her late extraordinary Trial. With some Observations on the Behaviour of the Court, and the conduct of the Jury. Also free and candid Remarks on Sir Crisp Gascoyne's Address. London: Printed for G. Woodfall at Charing-Cross, 1754. FIRST EDITION. Tall 12mo (17 cm) bound in later morocco decorated in blind, with the original spine laid down, gilt-lettered morocco spine label; vi, 293, [1] pp. ESTC T144508.

An uncommon title, of interest not only for its detailed account of one of the most scandalous criminal cases of the eighteenth century, but more especially for being considered in some knowledgeable circles as probably the FIRST DETECTIVE NOVEL in English literature. Elizabeth Canning was a London serving girl who claimed to have been abducted by force, held captive for a month in a hovel on the outskirts of the metropolis, and pressured into a life of prostitution. Her claim resulted in two closely-watched trials, the first of her alleged captors, a bawd known as Mother Wells and a gypsy named Mary Squires, and the second of Canning herself on charges of perjury. Canning was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to seven years' transportation, though the justice of the verdict was much disputed at the time and continues to be questioned to this day. The anonymous author tells Elizabeth Canning's story in a series of letters recounting the events of the affair as they unfold and analyzing the evidence as it's revealed. The work's epistolary form is similar to that of Samuel Richardson's popular contemporary novel Pamela, which is in fact mentioned in passing (Letter II: "Though you, Sir, are pleased to ridicule the Pretensions of my Heroine, as you term her, to Virtue, and say, you ought to expect, from the Specimen I gave you in my last, a realized Pamela, I have yet but little Reason to alter my Opinion."). Included are transcripts of two hearings held before another notable novelist of the period, Henry Fielding, who was the acting magistrate at an early stage of the case. Fielding himself published a less detailed account of the affair as a pamphlet, A Clear State of the Case of Elizabeth Canning (1753).

Binding with modest wear and rubbing; browning to the edges of the first and last leaf; title-page with closed tear at the bottom and tape repair to the gutter on the verso, one other leaf with similar tear at the bottom margin, contents lightly browned with occasional spotting and small stains, some page edges and corners a trifle bumped.