[ COMBE ( Wm. ) ]

Letters of an Italian Nun and an English Gentleman : translated from the French of J. J. Rousseau

      Dublin : Printed for C. Jackson, 1782. FIRST IRISH EDITION, pages xii, 252, 12mo, contemporary calf, neatly rebacked, with label, gilt : light browning and title-page skilfully repaired : a very good copy. ESTC has L, D and Cornell, but the D copy is in fact a microfilm copy. Not in Dt on-line. COPAC adds NLS. "Isabella" is the Italian nun and "Mr. Croll" the English gentleman in this epistolary novel, which was first published at London in 1781. Croll woos Isabella, wins her heart, abandons her, and returns to England ; Isabella dies a shunned and shamed, yet honorable, woman. Combe, satirical poet, hack writer, translator, ghost writer, editor, fabricator of letters (especially those to or by Laurence Sterne), employed as a propagandist by the Pitt administration, 1788-1806. His Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, with illustrations by Rowlandson, won acclaim and was followed by other collaborations. His life was less picturesque than picaresque. He was imprisoned for debt more than once.