Jew's Daughter, The.
[Judaica]. Bennet, (Mary). The Jew’s Daughter. Or the Witch of the Water-Side, A Story of the Thirteenth Century. London: Milner and Company, (n.d.).
12mo.; front hinge cracked; pages evenly browned; red cloth, lightly worn and darkened.
Possibly a first edition, though most likely a contemporary later edition, of this romance of medieval England. The publisher’s advertisement on the verso lists five other works by Mrs. Bennet “uniform in size, style, and price” and apparently genre; her other titles include Canadian Girl; or, The Pirate’s Daughter and Gipsy Bride: A Story of the 16th Century. The Jew’s Daughter is printed in two columns, with a frontispiece of “The Jew’s Daughter And Keturah Disguised As Minstrels Before Lincoln Castle.” A tragedy, the novel is quite sympathetic to Jews living under Catholic rule. Judith, the Jew’s Daughter, is cleared of an accusation of crucifying a child. She is then released from a betrothal to her cousin and marries the Christian crusader she loves, only to be reluctantly abandoned by him at a bishop’s insistence. Reminiscent of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe in tone and topic, this romance is an interesting example of the positive depiction of Jews in the popular press of the nineteenth century.
(#1352)
Print Inquire
