Craik--Women Novelists.

 [Craik, Mrs Dinah Maria Mulock.] The Head of the Family. A novel… London: Chapman and Hall, 1852, 8vo (197 x 120mm.), 3 volumes, first edition, original dark brown cloth lettered in gilt on spine and with design in blind on covers, [cf Sadleir 1811; Wolff 4993], ownership signatures, bookplate, some splitting to hinges, extremities slightly bumped; Hannah. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1872, 8vo (187 x 118mm.), 2 volumes, first edition, half-titles, 16pp. publisher’s catalogue at end of volume two, original red-brown cloth lettered in gilt on spine and with design and lettering in black on covers, [Wolff 4992], some spotting and browning, some splitting to hinges, minor loss to front fixed endpaper in volume one--Craik, Georgiana. Riverston. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857, 8vo (195 x 123mm.), 3 volumes, first edition of the author's first novel, advertisements at the end of volumes 1 and 3, original green morocco cloth, covers illustrated in blind, spines gilt, [Wolff 1537], a very fine copy (8)

As Wolff notes of the second work, “this is the story of a governess who leaves her place to take care of her niece, whose mother has died, and with whom her brother-in-law naturally falls in love. Deceased-wife’s-sister-in-law stands in their way. Melodramatic and thoroughly a tear-jerker…” Georgiana Craik (1831--1895) was the daughter of George Lillie Craik the elder, the uncle by marriage of Dinah Maria Craik (neé Mulock). The two novelists have often been confused.