THE PROFESSOR

First edition, first printing. Two volumes. Publisher's original purple cloth, stamped in blind to the upper and lower boards, titles in gilt to the spine. Publisher's adverts [in the first state] dated June 1857 at the rear. Complete with half titles. A near fine set, the bindings square and firm with a little bumping to the spine tips and corners, the cloth bright and fresh with some uniform fading of the spines. The contents, with a small ink name to the endpaper of each volume, and the original binder's ticket to the lower edge of the rear pastedown of volume I (as issued), are otherwise remarkably bright and fresh throughout. Housed in the bespoke quarter burgundy morocco solander case with titles in gilt to the spine.

A superb, unsophisticated example, uncommon thus. 'The Professor', was the first of four novels written by Charlotte Brontë although the last to appear in print. Whilst 'Jane Eyre', 'Shirley' and 'Villette' were published during the author's lifetime, 'The Professor' did not find a publisher until 1857, two years after the author's death. (Smith, E. Walter: The Bronte Sisters, 7).