I enjoyed choosing and inventing books for Sir Thomas Tarleton’s collection. The Burgundy Hours are of course inspired by the famous manuscript, the Très Riches Heures of the Duc de Berri. I found the plays with suggestive titles listed in the Roxburghe catalogue. The Shakespeare editions mentioned all exist. The division of Shakespeare quartos into “good” and “bad” didn’t happen until the early twentieth century, but I couldn’t resist the dog. So Juliana is ahead of her time in judging these early texts. Aretino, I discovered, became almost a generic name for pornography in the eighteenth century. A lot of dirty books published under his name bore little resemblance to the Italian original. I took my quotation from one of his French imitators.
The one-year anniversary of the duke’s sale was marked by the formation of the Roxburghe Club, which remains, to this day, England’s foremost society of bibliophiles. My collectors form the Burgundy Club, and in my next book Sebastian Iverley, who refuses to admit female members, will get his comeuppance and fall in love.
Lastly, I’d like to apologize to my erstwhile employer, Sotheby’s, for suggesting that, back in 1819, they might have had a security problem.
Miranda
About the Author
MIRANDA NEVILLE grew up in England before moving to New York City to work in Sotheby’s rare books department. After many years as a journalist and editor, she decided writing fiction was more fun. She lives in Vermont. For more about Miranda please visit her website, www.mirandaneville.com.
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By Miranda Neville
THE WILD MARQUIS
NEVER RESIST TEMPTATION
Coming Soon
THE DANGEROUS VISCOUNT
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE WILD MARQUIS. Copyright © 2010 by Miranda Neville. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © January 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-198148-7
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