1854 Handwritten Letter of Intrigue from Famed Writer Prodigy Julia Sophia Pardoe to an M. Bennoch

On offer, a three page letter from Julia Pardow on what appears to be her personal note paper, with a blind embossed logo at top bearing the initials JSP. Dated May 3, 1854, it’s a letter of great intrigue with a plea by her to a gentleman about a marriage gone wrong. Having never married, Pardoe's inner feelings are expressed.

Miss Julia Sophia Pardoe (1806-1862) began her literary career at an early age. Her volume of poetry ran to a second edition when she was just fourteen years old. However, it is for her historical and travel writing that Pardoe was first recognized and widely renowned. Her books include The City of the Sultan (1836), The Beauties of the Bosphorus (1839), and The Hungarian Castle (1842). In 1826 Julia was described as ‘a fairy-footed, fair-haired, laughing sunny girl.’ Much later she was portrayed as ‘a warm-hearted woman, singularly bright and animated; a capital raconteuse, and notwithstanding her literary talents, learned in the domestic arts’. (Dictionary of National Biography, 1922: 201)

Single watermarked and embossed sheet, three page letter, 7-⅛ x 4-⅜ inches folded. A pair of thin paper strips remain at the top of the 3rd page from a previous mounting, and the centre fold is beginning to tear at the bottom. It is age-toned with some small discoloured spots and has anachronistic pencil notation on the back. Very Good condition.