Held In Bondage, was first published in the New Monthly Magazine, as ‘Granville De Vigne, A Tale Of The Day’, January 1861-June 1863, and in book form in 3 volumes in 1863.
In her Preface, Ouida makes apology for the “errors both of structure and style” in this, the “earliest work I ever wrote”. Whilst acknowledging this, she writes that she has “thought it … useless to attempt any correction of these”. She hopes “no reader will form any judgement upon me as a writer from this very immature and most imperfect romance.”
“A very early novel, written when the writer was strongly under the influence of the muscular school.
The hero Granville de Vigne is first encountered at public school. The heir to £20,000 pounds a year, Vigne is a superb sportsman and general swell. The novel is narrated by his hero-worshipping friend, Arthur Chevasney. After three fast years at Cambridge, Vigne lords it over London society, with his inseparable companion Vivian Sabretasche. Despite his mother’s anxieties, he woos and wins the reigning beauty, ‘the Trefusis’. As she signs the register after the wedding, Trefusis discloses herself to be Lucy Davis, a Welsh girl whom Vigne earlier seduced and abandoned. She has married Vigne only to destroy his happiness forever. The story jumps ten years. Vigne and Sabretasche are discovered as soldiers of the Queen fighting Indian bandits.
They return to England, where Vigne falls in love with Alma Tresillian, an artist. On his part, Sabretasche wins the heart of Violet Molyneux. But just after their wedding, he discovers that a former wife, whom he thought dead, in fact lives. He too is in bondage. Vigne wrongly thinks that Alma has deserted him. He and Chevasney go to the Crimea where both take part in the glorious Charge of the Light Brigade. Sabretasche is eventually liberated, when his hag of an Italian wife finally drinks herself to death. And Trefusis is revealed to be a bigamist, releasing Vigne who at last marries Alma. The work is clearly written in the excitement of the divorce law reform of 1857. Ouida was not proud of the novel, and apologises in a later preface for its want of art.” (Sutherland, pp.289-90)
William B. Teasdale ownership inscription to verso of ffep. Bookseller ticker to front pastedown. Paper worn along joints, some marking to boards, still a very good copy.
