Violina; or, the Passing of the Old Adam and Eve.

New York: Broadway Publishing Company, [ [n.d., copyright 1904] First edition under this title. Seemingly predated by an edition under the title Violina; or, Poland and Liberty (New York: John L. Strus, 1904). Both editions are scarce. OCLC records only six physical copies of the Strus edition (Howard, Michigan State, LAPL, Ohio State, Macomb Community College, National Taiwan University) and four physical copies of the Broadway edition (the Huntington, Allegheny College, University of Pittsburgh, and NYPL). Publisher's purple cloth stamped in pink and gilt. . Octavo. . With three plates (frontispiece and three illustrations of Florence). Spine sunned and some discoloration to cloth. Some foxing to first and last few leaves. Open tear to margin of p. 162 (not touching text). Inscribed by Mary Ives Todd, "To my Dear Friend, Mr. F.A. Calkins, with the compliments of the author." A very good copy. Like many of the other novels by Mary Van Lennup Ives Todd (1849 – ca. 1915?), Violina uses the story of a young woman's tumultuous marriage to reflect on religious tradition, women's rights, and how husbands exert control over wives. The titular Violina Isartoryski is a young Polish American woman who travels to Florence to train as a musician. In Italy, she marries a musician who mistreats her; the pair eventually divorce when Violina discovers that he has two children with another woman. The themes of Violina reflect those of Todd's novel Deborah (1896), which examines marriage and gender in Salt Lake City during the early years of Mormon settlement there. (Inventory #: 17791)