[PRÉVOST, Antoine François, Abbé]. ~ Le doyen de Killerine. Histoire morale composée sur les mémoires d’une illustre famille d’Irlande; et ornée de tout ce qui peut rendre une lecture utile & agréable. Paris: Poppy, 1760 [vols. 2-6, La Haye: Pierre Poppy, 1744].
6 vols, 12mo (160 × 90 mm), pp. [2], vi, 183, [1]; [2], 210; [2], 211, [1]; [2], 192; [2], 202; [2], 234, [2]. Woodcut ornaments. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt panelled spines, vol. 1 slightly different from the other 5, matching contemporary red morocco labels. Rubbed. Early manuscript addition of the author’s name ‘Prévôt’ to free endpapers.
Prévost’s novel Le doyen de Killerine was first published in 1735 and was frequently reprinted. Set in Ireland, it tells the story of the attempts of a worldly Irish priest’s attempts (usually thwarted) to find suitable marriage partners for his siblings. It is full of romantic anguish, especially in dealing with the thorny question of intermarriage between Protestant and Catholic, and was influential in forming the French taste for ‘celtic’ novels which became so prevalent towards the end of the century and in the next. This copy is an early match of a 1760 edition of volume 1 and 1744 editions of the remainder, with slightly different spine tooling, unified by matching labels (presumably c. 1760). cf. Cioranescu 51276-7 (1735 and 1740 editions).