I am a passionate collector of all things Ouida (b. Marie Louise Ramé, 1839-1908). I currently own more than a hundred of her books in my personal collection. A literary phenomenon of the Victorian period, Ouida was a prolific, bestselling nineteenth-century writer who penned over twenty-five novels and more than fifty books under her iconic nom de plume. As she is far and away my favorite author, I pride myself in having read all of her available published work. At least, so I had thought until this past Father’s Day.
As a collector, I customarily request books by Ouida as gifts for any and all special occasions where gift giving is appropriate. Those who love me most understand that such books are among my favorite type of gift to receive. This Father’s Day, my wife and children acquired a pretty first edition of one of her many collections of novelettes for me—a book titled La Strega (1899). Prizing the aesthetics of the American first editions in particular, I was impressed with the beauty of its craftsmanship and graphic design. The floral-patterned front cover illustration on the publisher’s binding is set in deep green cloth. And the elegant typography printed on what is most likely an imitation rag paper lends a finer quality to the volume than many of the other, less expensive American editions of her shorter works that I have in my collection. Moreover, I appreciated the fact that even though the edition was not published by Lippincott (her official American publisher), it still lists a Philadelphia-based imprint as its publisher. To my surprise, the Drexel Building, which once housed Drexel Biddle—the company that released this edition—still stands in Philadelphia today.
A quick inspection of J. H. Betts’ frontispiece illustration led me to discover the biggest surprise contained in this edition. Looking more closely at it, I immediately noticed that I did not recognize the scene depicted within. Especially curious because, as previously stated, I was pretty sure that I had read pretty much everything Ouida had published: novels, novellas, novelettes, short stories, essays, all of it. Flipping to the table of contents, then, I saw that this version of the book contained a story called “Tonia”—a story that I hadn’t yet read! But how? The answer is that upon my first reading of this collection, I read a digital copy of the Bernhard Tauchnitz edition published 1899 in Leipzig. This eBook copy of the copyright edition did not have a frontispiece. Additionally, I later found that in that version, the story “A Basket of Plums” was in Tonia’s place. So, as it turned out, the Father’s Day gift I received this year was actually a gift within a gift. And, to me, something new to read by my favorite author is the kind of gift that keeps on giving.
by Jesse Ryan Erickson