05:25:53
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Bidding Information
Lot #
17925
Auction End Date
4/24/2007 12:33:30 PM (mm/dd/yyyy)
Title Information
Title (English)
The Vale of Cedars and other tales
Author
Grace Aguilar
City
London - Philadelphia
Publisher
J. M. Dent - Jewish Publication Society
Publication Date
1902
Collection Information
Independent Item
This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
Description Information
Physical
Description
Cloth, 8vo. Viii, 428 pages. First edition thus. Pictorial front cover and spine in colors; pictorial endpapers. Top edge gilt; other edges untrimmed. Tissued frontispiece illustration in color. Some darkening; front hinge starting; otherwise, very good condition.
Paragraph 1
Introduction by Walter Jerrold. Stories of Jewish life, some relating to the religious persecution of the Jews in Spain during the Inquisition. Tales include The Perez Family; Amete and Yafeh; The Fugitive; The Edict; The Escape; Helon; The Spirit's Entreaty; The Spirit of the Night; The Triumph of Love; and The Vale of Cedars, or The Martyr.
Detailed
Description
Grace Aguilar (1816–1847), English author of Portuguese Marrano extraction, who wrote a number of novels on Jewish themes and some religious works addressed primarily to Jewish women. Her first book was a volume of poems, The Magic Wreath which she published anonymously when she was only nineteen. Her truly creative period, however, began in 1842, and in the five years until her death at the age of 31 her literary output was remarkable, particularly because at the same time, although very ill, she was helping her mother run a private school at Hackney (outside London). Most of Grace Aguilar's books were not published until after her death. Her novel Home Influence (1847), "a tale for mothers and daughters," and its sequel, Mother’s Recompense (1851), had considerable success, but it was The Days of Bruce (1852), a romance set in 14th-century Scotland, that made her famous. The best known of her Jewish novels was The Vale of Cedars (1850), a romantic, highly idealized picture of the Marranos in Spain. Twice translated into German and twice into Hebrew, it long retained popularity. She also wrote stories and sketches based on Jewish life and family traditions. In a more serious vein, she translated from French the apologetic work of the ex-Marrano, Orobio de Castro, Israel Defended (1838). She herself wrote The Spirit of Judaism: In Defense of Her Faith and Its Professors (1842), and The Jewish Faith (1846). The latter took the form of letters addressed to a friend wavering in her religious conviction. Her Women of Israel (1845) was a series of biographical sketches of biblical characters, intended to arouse the pride of young Jews in their heritage. Grace Aguilar was one of the first English Jews to attempt to write a history of the Jews in England; it appeared in Chambers' Miscellany (1847). Plagued with health problems, she died at 31 while on a visit to Germany, before her talent could fully mature.
Reference
Description
Singerman 1109 (earlier edition).
Associated Images
3 Images
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Listing Classification
Period
20th Century:
Checked
Location
America-South America:
Checked
Subject
Other:
Women
Characteristic
Language:
English
Manuscript Type
Kind of Judaica
