[literature] Graham’s American Monthly Magazine of literature and art. embellished with mezzotint and steel engravings, music, etc.

Philadelphia: George R. Graham & Co, 1848. Hard Cover. Good+ binding/no dust jacket. Large 8vo.; full crimson calf; with gilt rules to the perimeters of the boards, and with elaborate borders stamped in blind; several small stains and scuffs on boards; spine has flat bands with gilt decoration and lettering; there is a one inch scrape of surface loss to the spine; wear and small separation to the top of the front joint; marbled endpapers; mezzotint and steel engraved illustrations with tissue guards; there is minor foxing throughout; [12] 356 pages; [4] 368 [4] pages. ~~The two volumes bound together are the Thirty Second Volume January, 1848, to June 1848 and the Thirty Third Volume June 1848, to January 1849. The contributors listed on the title leaf are separated by gender; they include William C. Bryant, J. Fenimore Cooper, Henry W. Longfellow, Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney, et al.; there are also three first printing columns of Marginalia by Edgar A. Poe.~~Of particular interest are reviews of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. The reviewer of Jane Eyre had this to say “when the authoress comes to deal with great passions, and represent morbid characters, we find that she is out of her element.” The contemporary review of Wuthering Heights was scathing “universally disappointed expectations” ...“There is an Old English saying that those who eat toasted cheese at night will dream of Lucifer. The author of Wuthering Heights has evidently eat toasted cheese. How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he has finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery.” Unattributed review, and with good reason. (Heartman and Canny, (1943) Pg 210). Good+ binding / no dust jacket. (Inventory #: 298572)