I have here for sale two books from the Richard Bentley Standard Novels series, being THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA of ISPAHAN by James Justinian Morier, and also the ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA OF ISPAHAN IN ENGLAND.  They were published in 2 volumes in 1835.  Each volume has an illustrated title page and frontispiece.  James Morier wrote these novels based on his time living in Persia as a diplomat from 1808 to 1814. It is one of most popular Oriental novels in the English language regardless of the controversy as to whether it was hostile and satirical towards the Persian people. 

In February 1831 Richard Bentley and Henry Colburn began publishing one-volume versions of novels that had previously been available only in three-decker form. They published novels whose copyright they owned and bought up the copyright to other novels.  Colburn and Bentley's "Standard Novels series" became "a landmark in nineteenth-century publishing".  Because each volume was only six shillings instead of a guinea and a half (i.e. 31s 6d), novels were suddenly available to a much wider audience than previously. Furthermore, the firm owned the copyright to the novels, making the profits of the enterprise entirely theirs.  The series would eventually be published over 24 years and include 126 volumes.

Half brown calf leather on brown marbled hardboards.  5 raised bands and maroon leather title blocks. Gilt tooling.  Some very minor rubbing to the leather but boards in very good condition.  Marbled page edges.  Pages sunned but clean.  Vol I 462 pages, Vol II 343 pages.  17 x 10 cm.

We have over 2000 items in our Ebay shop on a wide range of subjects, so please feel free to have a browse and see if and anything else takes your fancy.

Postage will be by Air Mail outside of UK.  If you buy more than one item then the postage cost falls for the second and further items as I will put them into one parcel - so you save money. We wrap and post the parcels on Monday and Tuesday - therefore if you pay before midday on Tuesday we will get it in the postal sacks on Tuesday night, and if it is after that time then it will go into the postal service on the following Monday.