ORLEY FARM
$1,045 · Offered by Biblio
First edition
London: Chapman and Hall, 1862. 2 volumes bound into one volume, both volumes with their original half-titles and title-pages. First Edition. With 40 engraved illustrations by John Everett Millais. 8vo, contemporary three-quarter black morocco over marbled paper covered boards, the spine with raised bands gilt tooled and decorated, one panel lettered in gilt, marbled edges and endleaves to match. viii, 320; viii, 320 pp. A fine and well preserved copy, occasionally with the normal expected and minor foxing to the illustrations. FIRST EDITION, TWO VOLUMES BOUND INTO ONE, WITH THE PRE-RAPHAELITE ARTIST JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS WOOD ENGRAVINGS. Written in the realist mode, George Orwell said the book contained "one of the most brilliant descriptions of a lawsuit in English fiction." The house in the story was based on a farm in Harrow once owned by the Trollope family which became a school later on. It was renamed Orley Farm School after the novel with Trollope's permission. When Joseph Mason of Groby Park, Yorkshire, died, he left his estate to his family. A codicil to his will, however, left Orley Farm (near London) to his much younger second wife and infant son. The will and the codicil were in her handwriting, and there were three witnesses, one of whom was no longer alive. A bitterly fought court case confirmed the codicil. There are various subplots. The main one deals with a slowly unfolding romance between Felix Graham (a young and relatively poor barrister without family) a
- Publisher: Chapman and Hall
- Year: 1862
- Edition: First Edition
- Binding: hardcover
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