OP: Ten Nights in a Bar-Room
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David C. Cook Publishing Company, Chicago, ND. Hardcover. Very Good.
First published in 1854, Ten Nights in a Bar-Room was an influential nineteenth century novel making the case for temperance. Written by teetotaler, moralist, and prolific author T. S. Arthur (1809–1885), the narrative follows a once-decent man whose eventual surrender to alcoholism leads to his own personal ruin, in addition to that of his family and those in his periphery. Mob violence, gambling, and filicide are all, hyperbolic perhaps, tropes illustrating the dangers of drink.
The easily digestible dialogue and the moralization of respectability and decency among the middle class spoke to the Victorian ideal, and the book was enormously popular well into the twentieth century, particularly after its adaptation to stage and, eventually, to film.
This particular edition, while undated, was probably printed between 1875 and 1882, as it was issued by the Christian publisher David C. Cook, the title page indicating the company’s original Chicago location where they were based between those years.
Very Good, overall, with some bending to the page corners. The case is lightly rubbed and discolored but attractive and sturdy.
