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Aeneas Press edition Victorian

Malbone

An Oldport Romance

by Thomas Wentworth Higginson 1823–1911

The book, and the century it came out of.

Newport out of season: a young man engaged to one cousin and in love with another, and a summer colony that watches. Higginson was a minister who helped storm a courthouse to free a fugitive slave, funded John Brown, commanded the first regiment of freed slaves in the Civil War, and later edited Emily Dickinson; this 1869 novel is the private side of a very public man, and Oldport is Newport with the names changed. Illustrated with 49 full-page plates — paintings by Larson, Buttersworth and Sørensen among them.

“What is Nature unless there is an eventful human life passing within her?
The first sentence of Malbone
A note on this edition

Malbone, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.

It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.

The edition
Format
Ebook
Extent
about 144 pages
Reading time
about 3 hours
Illustrations
Full-page plates, credited
Text
Complete, unabridged
Language
en
This edition
2026
ISBN
9785486975684
The plates

49 paintings are bound into this edition

Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.

Flying Cloud in rough weather, James E. Buttersworth
Flying Cloud in rough weather James E. Buttersworth 1860
Fischen in Gent, der Abend, Egide François Leemans
Fischen in Gent, der Abend Egide François Leemans 1860
Landscape, Edmund Darch Lewis
Landscape Edmund Darch Lewis 1860
Home Again, 1858, Henry Nelson O’Neil
Home Again, 1858 Henry Nelson O’Neil 1860
The Concert at Tre Byttor, Josef Wilhelm Wallander
The Concert at Tre Byttor Josef Wilhelm Wallander 1860
The Room of the German School, Eduard Hau
The Room of the German School Eduard Hau 1860
The setting

A page from this edition

Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.

A page of Malbone as set for this edition
The opening of a chapter
A page of Malbone as set for this edition
A page where a plate falls

Both photographed from the finished volume.

Colophon

Malbone, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.

Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486975684, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.

Before you buy

Questions readers ask

Is this the whole of Malbone?
Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
What exactly did you change?
The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Thomas Wentworth Higginson's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
Are the pictures really in the book?
Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
How long is it?
About 144 pages, which is roughly about 3 hours of reading.
What do I actually get?
An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
If this one suits you
Malbone
$4.99
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