Later in the same year Murray advertised the work under the following title:—
Lavengro, An Autobiography. By George Borrow, Esq., &c.
The same title was employed in the advertisements of 1850.
Mr. Clement Shorter possesses the original draft of the first portion of Lavengro. In this draft the title-page appears in its earliest form, and describes the book as Some Account of the Life, Pursuits, and Adventures of a Norfolk Man. A facsimile of this tentative title was given by Mr. Shorter in George Borrow and his Circle, 1913, p. 280.
“Borrow took many years to write Lavengro. ‘I am writing the work,’ he told Dawson Turner, ‘in precisely the same manner as The Bible in Spain, viz. on blank sheets of old account-books, backs of letters,’ &c., and he recalls Mahomet writing the Koran on mutton bones as an analogy to his own ‘slovenliness of manuscript.’ I have had plenty of opportunity of testing this slovenliness in the collection of manuscripts of portions of Lavengro that have come into my possession. These are written upon pieces of paper of all shapes and sizes, although at least a third of the book in Borrow’s very neat handwriting is contained in a leather notebook. The title-page demonstrates the earliest form of Borrow’s conception. Not only did he then contemplate an undisguised autobiography, but even described himself as ‘a Norfolk man.’ Before the book was finished, however, he repudiated the autobiographical note, and we find him fiercely denouncing his critics for coming to such a conclusion. ‘The writer,’ he declares, ‘never said it was an autobiography; never authorised any person to say it was one.’ Which was doubtless true, in a measure.”—[George Borrow and his Circle, 1913, pp. 279–281].
There is a copy of the First Edition of Lavengro in the Library of the British Museum. The Press-mark is 12622. f. 7.
(12.) [The Romany Rye: 1857]
The / Romany Rye; / A Sequel to “Lavengro.” / By George Borrow, / Author of / “The Bible in
Spain,” “The Gypsies of Spain,” etc. / “Fear God, and take your own part.” / In Two Volumes.—Vol. I. [Vol. II.] / London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. / 1857. / [The Right of Translation is reserved.]
Vol. I.