MIRIAM AND ROSETTE, OR, THE TWIN SISTERS: A JEWISH NARRATIVE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY : BY THE AUTHOR OF "EMMA DE LISSAU" ...
London: D. Bogue, 1847. Item #42644
Original period full tooled leather with raised bands, satin bookmark, and black leather spine label, 16mo (small) viii, 318 pages. All edges gilt. Includes 4 plates.
Immensely popular juvenile novel addressing themes of Jewish identity though a tale of twin Jewish girls raised by their widowed father. Indeed, much of Bristow’s writing explores Jewish themes and Jewish identity
Amelia Bristow was born Amelia Solomon in 1783 in London. “In 1810 she published her first work. The Maniac, a Tale; or, a View of Bethlem Hospital: and the Merits of Women a Poem from the French, with Poetical Pieces on various Subjects, original and translated....In 1824 she published The Faithful Servant, or The History of Elizabeth Allen, an Evangelical novel she published anonymously. At some point in her life she converted from Christianity to Judaism (Blain,157) and in 1828 she published Emma DeLissau: a narrative of striking vicissitudes, and peculiar trials: with explanatory notes, illustrative of the manners and customs of the Jews, which proved to be quite popular and went through five editions by 1840 (Jackson,38).
In 1828 she also published Sophia DeLissau: or, A portraiture of the Jews of the Nineteenth century: being an outline of their religious and domestic habits with explanatory notes. In 1830 she published The orphans of Lissau : and other interesting narratives, immediately connected with Jewish customs, domestic and religious, with explanatory note, a third volume in her ‘Lissau series.’
The Lissau series focuses on providing information about the aforementioned ‘domestic and religious’ habits of Polish Jews in England, with a particular focus on women in that group (Blain,157)....
Her last book was Rosette and Miriam, or, The twin sisters: a Jewish narrative of the eighteenth century which she published in 1837, just two years before the death of her husband sometime around 1839.” She died in 1860 (Lia Havlena, 2018. See https://english.unl.edu/sbehrendt/WomenWritersProject/BristowManiacBio.htm)
SUBJECT(S): Jewish families -- Juvenile fiction. Motherless families -- Twins -- Sisters -- Fathers and daughters -- Jews -- Persecutions -- Conversion to Christianity --Familles juives -- Romans, nouvelles, etc. pour la jeunesse. Familles sans me`re -- Sœurs --Pe`res et filles -- Juifs -- Perse´cutions -- Conversion au christianisme. OCLC: 172996665. OCLC lists only 2 copies of the 1847 edition (HUC, British Library), and only 5 other holdings of any editions from before the 1870s (Hamilton College, Cabiola Univ, Stanford, Yale, UFlorida)
Light shelfwear to leather, leather spine label has little chip, 1858 prize bookplate tipped into front pastedown (awarded to Miss Elizabeth Lowson). About Very Good Condition. Very attractive copy of a scare imprint. (Women-6-11).
Price: $425.00