Jacob's Raja of Sarawak + letter from the author

Res 100 Est 200-300

Gertude Le Grand JACOB. The Raja of Sarawak: An Account of Sir James Brooke, K.C.B., LL.D., given chiefly through Letters and Journals. London: [William Clowes and Sons for] Macmillan and Co., 1876. 2 volumes, octavo. Pp. [iii-]xii, [1-]379; [i-ii,1-]393[-394]. Vol.I, p.363 line 1 with manuscript correction by the author. 1 map only (of 2, the map which is present is double-page coloured map at the start of vol.I), 2 wood-engraved frontispieces. Extra-illustrated with an ALS from the author mounted at the front of vol.I, and a 4pp. letterpress offprint 'The Principality of Sarawak by Raja Charles Brooke Reprinted from the Pall Mall Gazette, of November 19th, 1883' bound at the back of vol.II. (Lacking the folding map from vol.II, both volumes toned, some chipping to page edges.) Original cloth (the spines defective, torn, split and chipped, vol.I with some substantial sections lacking, replaced with paper facsimile work - needs rebinding). Provenance: Dr George Johnson (presentation inscription from the author on the title page of vol.I, together with a related 3pp. letter from the author mounted on the front free endpaper of vol.I).

Presentation copy of the first edition of the most detailed and one of the most interesting of the biographies of Brooke: lacking one map, but still worthy of restoration and preservation. Gertrude Jacob was the niece of General Sir George Legrand Jacob, hero of the Indian mutiny and a friend of James Brooke. In the preface, the author's uncle gives his own account of the circumstances of his visit to Sarawak. The author was able to access first hand sources, was granted access to Brooke's letters, as well as the printed sources. The present work was the first to include an account of Reuben George, whom the Raja claimed as his son, and was perhaps the main source of the dispute between Brooke and his nephew John Brooke Brooke.