Description

JONES, J. B. The Monarchist: An Historical Novel Embracing Real Characters and Romantic Adventures. Philadelphia: A. Hart, late Carey & Hart, 1853.

First Edition. 8vo. 20 cm tall. 336 pages. Publisher’s full olive-brown cloth, boards stamped in blind, gilt lettering to spine. Copyright 1852. BAL 10998. Wright II, 1375. Sabin 36530. Near Fine-. No previous owner markings or bookplates. Moderate fading and light soiling to the cloth. Mild wear to extremities; slight fraying and loss to spine ends. Moderate foxing to front and back matter; only light foxing through text proper.

The only outright historical novel and the sole Revolutionary-War novel from John Beauchamp (“J. B.”) Jones, who is remembered primarily for A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital, his diary of service in the Confederate War Department.
This title marks a mid-career pivot between Jones’s earlier Western/frontier novels (the first of which judged “of high merit” by none other than Edgar Allan Poe) and his later explicitly sectional, pro-Southern fiction.
An intriguing view into how a future Confederate diarist imagined the “first” American rebellion, well before the outbreak of the Civil War.
Extremely scarce in commerce.