CARMELA. A Novel.

First edition in English. Three volumes. 8vo. Publisher's original green ripple-grain cloth with black decorative border and titles to the upper board, decorative border in blind to the rear board, titles in gilt and decorated in black to the spine. 32pp publisher's catalogue dated June 1880 at the rear of volume III. A very good set, the bindings uniformly bumped and worn at the extremities, the gilt bright and the cloth clean. The contents with some offsetting to the endpapers and the occasional finger mark to the margins throughout. Hinges cracked but holding firm.

A very scarce Victorian three decker by the Ukrainian born author Princess Olga Cantacuzène Altieri (1849-1929), translated from the French by Eugenia Klaus. WorldCat is unable to trace any institutional holding of this first edition in English; COPAC locates just four copies (Bodleian Library; British Library; London Library; National Library of Scotland). Rare in commerce with no copies on Rare Book Hub, ABPC auction records or, at the time of cataloguing, traceable for sale within the trade.