First Swedish translation of Charlotte Lennox’s 'Sophia': 1 copy worldwide.

[Charlotte Lennox]. Sophia, eller Dygdens och behagens seger öfwer skönheten; sedolärande, dock ej torr roman. Stockholm: tryckt och uplagd i kongl. Finska Boktryckeriet, hos Johan A. Carlbohm, 1785. 8vo [17.3 x 11.0 cm], 180 pp., with woodcut tail-piece. Half bound in contemporary calf with tips and tree-calf paper over card. Remnants of labels on spine, rubbing and edge wear to spine and boards, stains and annotations to endpapers. The occasional minor stain, minor interior toning.  
 
 
Very rare (1 copy worldwide: Swedish National Library) first and only edition of this first Swedish translation of the 1762 novel Sophia by the Scottish writer Charlotte Lennox (c. 1729-1804).
 
The book follows the fortunes of Sophia Darnley and her sister Harriet to explore themes of friendship, money, seduction, and female education was they relate to ‘unprotected’ women of the 18th century.
 
The full Swedish title might be translated: “Sophia, or the Victory of Virtue and Pleasure over Beauty; A moralizing, yet not dry Novel.”
 
Lennox is best known for her The Female Quixote (1752) and Henrietta (1758) and for her scholarly investigation of the source material of Shakespeare’s plays (Shakespear Illustrated: Or The Novels and Histories, on which the Plays of Shakespear are Founded, 1753-4). She was especially praised by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding.
 
 
OCLC and KVK locate 1 copy worldwide: Kungliga biblioteket Sveriges nationalbibliotek.
 
*Susan Carlile, Charlotte Lennox: An Independent Mind.