Two Loves and a Life. by READE, Charles and TAYLOR,…

London: Richard Bentley, 1854. Full calf, 6.5 inches tall. A splendid little full calf with gilt raised bands, triple labels and delicate floral gilt tooling to the panels. Gilt dentelles and all edges. Charles Reade, most well known for 'The Cloister and the Hearth', was a hugely popular Victorian novelist. Arthur Conan Doyle declared 'The Cloister and the Hearth' to be his favorite novel and Oscar Wilde called it Reade's "one beautiful book, after which he wasted the rest of his life in a foolish attempt to be modern". His very early Dramatic Works, such as 'Two Loves and One Life' written in collaboration with Tom Taylor, are extremely scarce, this copy being spectacularly well bound.