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Cooper's Romance of a Handkerchief

COOPER, JAMES FENIMORE.

The French Governess; or, The Embroidered Handkerchief. A Romance.

Place and Imprint: London: Richard Bentley, 1843.
Edition: First English edition and first edition in book form.
Bibliographical References: BAL 3903; Spiller, page 122; OCLC records 14 copies, to which JISC adds four.
Condition: Boards a little worn; very good copy.
Book ID: 29032

Physical Description

8vo, original drab boards, gray-green cloth spine and recently printed paper spine label. With half-title.

Comments

One of Cooper’s lesser known works, a venture into the popular 18th and 19th century genre of fiction narrated by an inanimate object, such as a walking stick, an umbrella, a seat cushion, etc. Cooper used a finely milled French handkerchief to tell his story as it (she – a feminine handkerchief!) traveled from the hands of Adrienne de la Rocheaimard of Paris - a young woman so reduced by revolutions and misfortunes that she was compelled to become a governess - to America, where it became the most expensive handkerchief ever sold in New York. As an object of extravagance and beauty the handkerchief became the focus of envy and gossip among everyone who owned it, and as it changed hands from Parisian parlors to the genteel residences of Broadway, Cooper contrasts the French and American societies through which it passed. At one point the handkerchief comments that in America there was nothing good: “the climate, the people, the food, the morals, the laws, the dress, the manners, and the tastes were all infinitely worse than those in Europe.” ¶ The story was first serialized in Graham's Magazine, January to April, 1843, as Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief, and first separately published as a Brother Jonathan Extra (see BAL 3902) under the title Le Mouchoir: An Autobiographical Romance. Cooper's London publisher, Richard Bentley, soon after issued this first edition in book form with the altered title The French Governess; or, The Embroidered Handkerchief. A Romance. It was not included in Cooper’s collected works and not reprinted until 1897. All the original editions are rare in the trade.

Price: $950.00