Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia, The.
[Fielding, Sarah]. The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia. By the author of David Simple. Second edition corrected. London: Printed for the Author, and sold by A. Millar, in the Strand; R. and J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall; and J. Leake, at Bath, 1758.
8vo.; contemporary bookplate; offsetting to edges of endpapers; contemporary calf, rebacked, original spine laid down; covers lightly worn; edges rubbed; an attractive and sound copy.
Second edition, revised; published two years after the first edition; for this printing Fielding "polished" the text of the 1756 edition. Black p. 74; New CBE II, 99. Bound in at the rear is a leaf of advertisements for "Books Printed by A. Millar, in the Strand," all of which are either by Henry (20) or Sarah Fielding (4). Of prime importance are the final two titles by Henry—"The Female Husband" and "The History of the Rebellion in Scotland," both of which, to this day, remain unlocated and therefore have been inserted into Fielding's canon by various bibliographers exclusively on the strength of this advertisement.
Sarah Fielding (1710-1768) took up residence with Henry and his family after the death of his wife; there seems little question that she had actively participated in the composition of several of his works, neglected in her lifetime. The Lives of Cleopatra and Octavia, ostensibly a didactic novel, has grown in the last decade to be perceived as a vaguely imaginative and sympathetic form of biography. Set in the first century B.C., it tells the stories of two famous women, each of whom played an important role in Roman history during the turbulent period of civil war that preceded the Golden Age of Augustus Caesar. The device Fielding employed that distinguishes this work was narration entirely in the voices of Cleopatra and Octavia from beyond the grave, incorporating both factual and fictional details. In doing so, Fielding generates a real psychological edge that reflects the inner turmoil of both women’s lives—the ruthlessness of Cleopatra and the enduring felicity and patience of Octavia. Lightly treated upon publication, modern readers have grown to recognize in The Lives… the intricacy of a fiction that delves deep into 18the century understandings of historiography, marriage, and female education.
(#5812)
Print Inquire
