Relatively well-held institutionally, but significantly rare in commerce, with RareBookHub / ABPC listing only a single copy to have sold at auction since 1915, appearing at Christie’s in 1979.
Charles Brockden Brown’s novels are examples of early American Gothic and influenced writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Percy Shelley. “In modifying contemporaneous English and German Patterns to fit his own theory of fiction, Brown adopted the Gothic formula of murder and midnight seduction for achieving effects of terror and horror, but he rejected familiar castle trappings and placed his stories in ordinary houses in American settings. Instead of ghosts and other supernatural or pseudo-supernatural manifestations, he used the wonders of nature and of human power which seem supernatural to the inexpert observer.” (Warfel).
Extensively restored, crude paper repairs to title page, publishers advert leaf and dedication leaf, with some but not significant loss to text, marginal tear to X2 touching two characters on recto. Browning throughout. Note from the binder loosely inserted, dated June 1963, explaining the repair and rebinding work done.
BAL, (1497). Charles Brockden Brown, American Gothic Novelist, Harry R. Warfel.