LEVER, Charles. A Collection of the Selected Works of Charles Lever.

LEVER, Charles. A Collection of the Selected Works of Charles Lever.
1. Charles O’Malley The Irish Dragoon. By Harry Lorrequer. Illustrated by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne). Two
volumes. Dublin: Curry, 1845. First edition.
2. Davenport Dunn. A Man of our Day. With illustrations by Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, 1858. First edition.
3. The Daltons or Three Roads in Life. With illustrations by Phiz. Two volumes. London: Chapman and Hall, 1852.
First edition.
4. The Martins of Cro’ Martin. With illustrations by Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, 1856. First edition.
5. The O’Donoghue; a Tale of Ireland Fifty Ago. With illustrations by H.K. Browne. Dublin: Curry, 1845. First
edition.
6. Tom Burke of “Ours.” With numerous illustrations on steel, by H.K. Brown. Two volumes. Dublin: Curry, 1845.
First edition.
7. Our Mess. Vol. I. Jack Hinton, The Guardsman. With a portrait of the author and numerous illustrations on wood
and steel. By Phiz. Dublin: Curry, 1843. First edition.
8. One of Them. With illustrations by Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, 1861. First edition.
9. The Dod Family Abroad. With illustrations by Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, 1854. First edition.
10. Roland Cashel. With illustrations by Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, 1850.
11. The Knight of Gwynne; A Tale of The Time of the Union. With illustrations by Phiz. London: Chapman and
Hall, 1847. First edition.
12. Diary and Notes of Horace Templeton, Esq. Later Secretary of Legation at - Second edition. Two volumes.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1849.

13. Barrington. With illustrations by Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, 1863. First edition.
14. Luttrell of Arran. With illustrations by Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, 1865. First edition.
15. The Commissioner: or, De Lunatico Enquirendo. With twenty-eight illustrations on steel by Phiz. Dublin: Curry,
1843. First edition.
16. Maurice Tiernay, The Soldier of Fortune. By the author of “Sir Jasper Carew,” etc. etc. London: Thomas
Hodgson, no date. First edition.
17. St. Patrick’s Eve. Illustrated by Phiz. London: Chapman and Hall, 1845. First edition. Near contemporary half red morocco over marbled boards. All volumes (except No. 17) in later half green morocco over marbled boards. Spine divided into six panels by five thick raised bands; title, author and volume number in gilt direct in second and third. Blue, white, gold, and red marbled endpapers; red, gold and blue endbands. From the Jesuit Library, Milltown Park, [O’Brien bequest] with labels and neat stamp on titlepage. Most volumes with engraved titles. Occasional light spotting. Top edges gilt. A near fine collection.

Charles James Lever was born in Dublin in 1806. Educated at T.C.D. where he graduated B.A. in 1827. Four years later he qualified as a doctor and worked with the victims of the cholera epidemic at Kilrush, County Clare. Afterwards he was appointed dispensary doctor at Portstewart, County Derry, where he met William Hamilton Maxwell, whose ‘Wild Sports of the West’ inspired the manner and tone of Lever’s early military novels. These entertaining novels portray the comic adventures of insouciant and ebullient young subalterns of the Napoleonic period enjoying themselves in an Ireland which allows them plenty of scope for hunting, drollery, practical joking, and romantic escapades. Trollope in his autobiography said of Lever:
“Of all the men I have ever encountered, he was the surest fund of drollery ... Rouse him in the middle of the night, and wit would come from him before he was half awake”.

[L1 8A]