Books

Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by Styner and Cist, [ 1777].. pp.[2],27-56. Modern three-quarter morocco and marbled boards, bound in antique style, spine lettered in gilt. Titlepage trimmed, slightly repaired at fore-edge. Light tanning and dampstaining. About very good. The very rare third part of the series by Paine, written to boost the morale of American troops. The pamphlet is dated "Philadelphia, April 19, 1777" at the end of the text. The verso of the titlepage prints proclamations by Gen. George Washington dated April 6 and 8, 1777, offering pardons to all army deserters who rejoin their corps before May 15, 1777. Paine thus wrote the pamphlet in mid-April 1777. In the text Paine predicts that Philadelphia will be a target of the British armies, as indeed it was that summer. He also warns of the consequence of a British victory over the rebellious colonists: "Britain, like a gamester nearly ruined, hath now put all her losses into one bet, and is playing a desperate…

The American is a novel by Henry James, originally published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1876-77 and then as a book in 1877. The novel is an uneasy combination of social comedy and melodrama concerning the misadventures of its eponymous hero, Newman, an essentially good-hearted but rather unsophisticated American businessman who is confronted with the Machiavellian world of Parisian society and its complex codes of honour.