Percy Bysshe Shelley

A first edition of St. Irvyne or The Rosicrucian, by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

• Percy Bysshe Shelley (British).
• London: for J. J. Stockdale, 1811.
• Octavo.
• [ii] 236 pages.
• First edition, first issue.
• Bound in full olive green morocco with fleurons and fillets gilt to the boards, title, author, and date gilt to the spine, gilt dentelles and edges, and marbled pastedowns and endpapers.

St. Irvyne was Shelley's second gothic romance, written before he attended Oxford and published anonymously while he was an undergraduate. He believed that this subgenre of fiction would make money, and tried financed the printing of the book himself, assuming that it was "a thing which almost mechanically sells to circulating libraries." He was, in fact, wrong, and St. Irvyne was little noticed upon its release. J.J. Stockdale later reissued the unsold first editions with a new title page and imprint dated 1822. The original bill for the publication was meant to be borne by Shelley. Finding the young poet unable to pay, Stockdale applied to Shelley's father, who responded that since his son was not of age, he wouldn't pay a farthing on the account.

This particular work of Shelley is hardly seen on the market, with only 7 copies appearing at auction in the last 75 years, the last surfacing over a decade ago.