Books

12mo. original blindstamped brown cloth gilt (ex-Gisborne Mechanics Institute Library with labels to spine and upper board, occ. RSM and blindstamp to outer leaves; cloth rubbed & frayed at extremities, some marks and spots, but generally clean); pp. [iv (last blank)], 468 (last blank). Ex-libris John Pascoe Fawkner, founding father of Melbourne and one-time resident of the failed Sullivan Bay convict settlement at Sorrento as a boy of 10. Fawkner has signed (as initials 'J.P.F.') to the first text page upon his original acqusition of the book on Aug. 1st 1853, with a later presentation inscription 'Presented to the Gisborne Mechanics Institute October the 21st 1861 by John Pascoe Fawkner, M.L.G.'. Fawkner has additionally signed on the title page, with another presentation inscription, possibly in a different hand, to the verso FFE. A good copy with a significant association in Victorian history.

Twice-Told Tales is a collection of previously published short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne that was duely noted for its depiction of moral allegories concerning the American Puritanism of Hawthorne's time.