The adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom

London: W. Johnston, 1753. First edition, 2 volumes, 12mo, pp. [2], viii, 262; [2], 315; contemporary full original calf, simple double gilt rules on covers, gilt-paneled spines, red morocco labels; upper joints slightly cracked, but generally a very good copy, unrestored, and retaining the final blank leaf in volume I; contained in a full crush brown levant solander case. Smollett's third novel, "the story of an unmitigated villain, whose mother was a camp-follower in Marlborough's army, and who took the title of Count without any right to it. Endowed with talent and adroitness, but with no spark of honor or decency, he is received and brought up in the family of the German Count Melville whose benevolence he repays by attempting to beguile his daughter into marriage, and when he fails, by organizing with his confederate, the daughter's maid, a series of thefts on the family. Fathom passes from fraud to fraud, and seduction to seduction, in repulsive succession. His principal achievement is the betrayal of the honest Renaldo, his benefactor's son, and his attempt to seduce Monimia, the woman whom Renaldo is about to marry, and who only escapes his violence by feigning death. Finally Fathom is detected in his crimes and imprisoned; and Monimia, whom Renaldo had mourned as dead, is restored to her lover. But the author relents and saves Fathom from the fate he has richly merited, by an unconvincing repentance" (Ox. Comp. to Eng. Lit.). Rothschild 1912-13; NCBEL II, 963.