The Exemplary Novels of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the Author of Don Quixote de la Mancha
London: Printed for T. Cadell, 1822. First edition. The preface to volume two promises a forthcoming third volume, though only two volumes were ever published. These two volumes contain only ten of Cervantes’ twelve Novelas ejemplares. Note that, while Maria Sarah Moore (1780-1842) is not credited as the translator of the present work, it is attributed to her in both the British Museum’s 1908 Catalogue of Printed Books: Cervantes (p. 57) and William Cushing’s 1889 Anonyms: A Dictionary of Revealed Authorship (p. 230). Minor toning to spine of volume two. Some foxing and toning throughout but overall a very good, tight set. Late nineteenth century half green morocco over marbled boards with gilt rule. Gilt spines with five raised bands. Top edge gilt. Two volumes, twelvemo. xvi, 391 pp.; vii, [1] erratum, 479 pp. Item #16752
In the chapter “Englishing Cervantes’ Exemplary Novels,” Frances Luttikhuizen describes the present translation as “well worth analyzing” because “it belongs to the general nineteenth century movement of literary expurgations, more specifically, to the period…[called] female-authored Moral-Domestic fiction,” (p. 89). It is possible, based on Luttikhuizen’s findings on the history of translations of Cervantes’ Novelas ejemplares, that Maria Sarah Moore (1780-1842) was the first woman to publish English translations of these particular works.
Maria Sarah Moore was the daughter of Peter Moore (1753–1827), a Member of Parliament and a civil servant of the East India Company, and a resident of a manor in Monken Hadley, a historical village at the northern edge of Greater London. A record of the parish of Monken Hadley reveals that Moore was the primary inheritor of her father’s fortune and property upon his death, and she lived at the manor, unmarried, until she sold the property in 1832. Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men…no. 6, v. 9, 1884, p. 358. Frederick Charles Cass, Monken Hadley (1880), pp. 73-76. Frances Luttikhuizen, “Englishing Cervantes’ Exemplary Novels.” In The Cervantean Heritage: Reception and Influence of Cervantes in Britain (2009) pp. 84-94.
Price: $750.00