MR. MIDSHIPMAN EASY.

London : Saunders & Otley, 1836. First edition. Marryat's amiable and abidingly popular tale of the making of a seaman - although as one modern critic has it, "there's something here to offend almost everyone". Contemporary critics found it "a work of great power and surpassing beauty, sufficient of itself to have established his reputation as a man of genius" (London Courier, 19th December 1836). Three volumes. Demy 12mo (186 x 112mm). (viii),(292); (viii),306; viii,314pp. Bound, without half-titles and advertisement leaves, in a neat contemporary half tan calf, banded and gilt; red labels; marbled sides, edges and endleaves; just a touch sunned; a few faint signs of age and use, but a very good and sound set. With the contemporary armorial bookplates of John Wingfield (1769-1862) of Onslow, Sheriff of Shropshire and Mayor of Shrewsbury, in each volume - and the more recent nautical bookplate of the notable collector Robert James Hayhurst (1929-2016).