A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy

[1839]. Pages: [4], vi, 172pp. With numerous engraved vignettes and decorations throughout text, after original drawings by Jacque and Fussell. Brown cloth boards, blind ruled, blind embossed and gilded decorations front and spine, all edges gilded (boards somewhat worn at edges, rounded at corners and spine tips, a few mild marks). Internally clean, neat and bright, barring a tad of browning on front endpapers. A strong, square and firmly bound volume. Sterne was one of the two or three members of the clergy who chose to write of love and its pleasures despite the strictness of his calling. A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy might very properly be called 'A Romantic Mission', for this account of the clerical Casanova's travels is little less than a veritable chronicle of encounters and intimacies with the gentler sex ranging from chamber maid to Duchess, from grisette to Marquisina. It is one of our rich literary gifts out of the past.