LANE CLARKE, Theodora M.L.
Roman Violets, And Where They Blossom
London, Burns & Oates, 1879
8vo, hardcover, cloth binding, grey-blue pictorial boards, gilded titles on boards and spine, 200 p. ; good copy, light wear to boards, spine slightly cocked
Scarce first edition of the most well-known novel by Victorian author Theodora M. Louis Lane Clarke (1851-1906), the only child of the Rev. Thomas Clarke and author Louisa Lane. From an early age and while living in Guersney, she started writing for magazines and authored several books. Lane Clarke became a member of The Gosling Society, an essay society initiated in 1859 by the novelist Charlotte Mary Yonge for girls in need of more intellectual stimulation. They adopted fancy pen-names such as ‘Hedge Rose’, ‘Shamrock’ or ‘Chelsea China’. Lane Clarke would become ‘Joy’. After she married Captain Bartholomew Teeling, she would write under the name Bartle Teeling. A beautiful period item in every sense.
“(4..) Roman Violets, and where they Blossom.—This is really a very prettily-told story of three Roman children, Nanna, Bice, and Cesare, their foster-brother. The last of these is brought to London, and after very various adventures returns to Rome and studies under an American artist, “bidding fair to become famous on some not far-distant day.” He finds again Nanna, whom he loved as a child. It is a pity that the Italian words in the tale are sadly misspelt or misprinted—a solde, for instance, for a soldo, buoni fortuni for buone fortune, ” e” for ; and, we may add. Giacomo does not mean “Jack,” but James. » (The Tablet: a weekly newspaper and review, p. 9, 12th April 1879)
