Journal of a West India Proprietor, Kept During a Residence in the Island of Jamaica

London: John Murray, 1834.

Sold

Hardcover. First edition. 408pp. Original cloth with gilt spine lettering. Scattered foxing, especially to the first and last few leaves, a couple of tiny tears at the spinal extremities, else an especially fine copy and scarce thus. Posthumously published journal by "Monk" Lewis, a white author of the "scandalous," but now-classic gothic horror novel, *The Monk*. Lewis, a contemporary and associate of Byron, the Shelleys, and Polidori, was a sensational writer of morbid, ghostly, and sensual tales, the arch-priest of gothic romance, whose novels caused both sensation and censure. Despite his propensity for the macabre he was a man of gentle nature and his concern for the welfare of the slaves on the Jamaican plantations he inherited prompted two visits to Jamaica, where he attempted to improve conditions. He died on shipboard returning from the last of these trips at the age of 43. This journal has extensive passages on the lives and condition of the population of his plantations. Rebound copies are relatively common, copies in original cloth in this condition are scarce.

Item #2965

item image

Item #2965 Journal of a West India Proprietor, Kept During a Residence in the Island of Jamaica. Matthew Gregory LEWIS.