Francis Berrian; or, the Mexican patriot
London: published by John Cunningham, Crown-Court, Fleet-Street, 1841. 8vo, pp. 168; text in double column; removed from binding, wrappers wanting, bottom corner of final leaf chipped affecting several letters; otherwise very good. Flint's first novel, published first in two volumes in 1826 and reprinted in the 1830s (see Wright I, 958-60). An English edition appeared in 1834. "After a description of the Mississippi country, discovers a new scene for fiction in Mexico, where the hero of course falls in love with the beautiful daughter of a noble governor, becomes involved in a Revolution, and undergoes every conceivable affliction, supported by his love for the heroine and the sympathy of the inevitable comic Irishman" (Loshe, The Early American Novel, Columbia Univ. Press 1907. As "the first North American novel set in Mexico," Francis Berrian has been the subject of some scholarly monographs, e.g. "'Francis Berrian': Hispanic Influence on American Romanticism" by Frederick S. Stimson, (in Hispania 42:4, Dec., 1959) and Keri Holt, "Double-Crossings: The Trans-American Patriotism of Francis Berrian" (Western American Literature 44:4, Winter 2010). Americana Collection of Herschel V. Jones, 1045 (this edition); the note to BAL 6114 (for the 1826 edition) refers to an ad for the earlier London edition, but does not mention this 1841 printing and it was not noted elsewhere; Sabin 24787. Item #57150
Price: $250.00
