(London: for T. Payne and T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1796).

FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR'S GREATEST COMMERCIAL AND CRITICAL SUCCESS. Like her early novel EVELINA, CAMILLA was published anonymously, although by this time Burney was already quite famous as "the Author of Evelina and Cecilia". She was also one of the most prominent members of the Blue Stocking Circle and was a close acquaintance of Samuel Johnson. Burney's works were admired and enjoyed by such luminaries as David Garrick and Jane Austen. In fact, Miss J. Austin appears on the list of subscribers, along with the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, Sir Walter Farquhar and a virtual who's who of lords, ladies, counts and earls. Jane Austen referred to both CAMILLA and CECILIA in her novel NORTHANGER ABBEY - “'And what are you reading, Miss — ?' 'Oh! It is only a novel!' replies the young lady, while she lays down her book with affected indifference, or momentary shame. "It is only Cecilia, or Camilla, or Belinda; or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best–chosen language."
Enormously popular, CAMILLA, is seemingly just a love story of matrimonial concerns, but it advanced the spirit of Romanticism by weaving together moments of brightness with moments of dark, and comic escapades with gothic shudders. Like many literary works of the period it touches upon the gap between the social classes, and also with the more universal and timeless gap between the generations. But, in the end it is the love affair between Camilla and her eligible suitor, Edgar Mandlebert, and their many mistakes and hardships on the path towards true love, that made CAMILLA one of the most successful of the formative works that led to the modern novel as we know the genre today. Item #31670

5 volumes. First Edition. 8vo, bound in antique half dark brown calf over marbled boards, the spines with gilt ruled raised bands, gilt lettering in one compartment and gilt volume numbers in a second compartment, bound with the one page advertisement in Vol. I included, this leaf is often lacking but is present here. Internally a very fresh and attractive set, the text sturdy and tight and very clean, the antique bindings with some wear to the leather along the joints and at the spine tips, front board to the final volume all but detached, all others firm, the marbled boards attractive.