Books

First collected edition, with two of the stories (Romance of a Morning, Romance of an Evening) here printed for the first time, the other two (Romance of a Day, Romance of a Night) previously published in 1760 and 1762 respectively (hence stated second edition on title page). John Cleland is best known for his The Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (generally known as Fanny Hill), often seen as the first modern erotic novel. The Surprises of Love, as with all of Cleland's works, is a scarce book, ESTC listing only fifteen copies in institutional libraries (BL and Oxford only in the UK), and with only a few auction records in the last half century. Duodecimo (165 x 95 mm). Contemporary calf, spine bands and covers ruled in gilt. A few contemporary pen jottings to pastedowns. Light wear to extremities, a few scratches to covers, front joint starting to split at head, a little shaken, front free endpaper lacking, inner margin of title page torn at head without affecting text, corner of p. 171 chipped without affecting text, a few pages lightly creased and marked. A very good copy. ESTC N24327.