Beige cloth binding with black title on the (repaired) spine and front board.

We provide an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available. 

•              A £2 reduction when collected from FBA shop

For conditions please view our photographs. This is an interesting book in a very readable condition. 

“Coming Thro’ the Rye” is a famous nineteenth-century novel written by Helen Mathers, originally published in 1875. The copy listed is a circa 1930 edition published by Herbert Jenkins in London.

• The Publisher: Herbert Jenkins was a well-known London publisher famous for fiction, humor (including P.G. Wodehouse), and affordable popular editions during the early to mid-20th century. This edition is a later reprint, not a first edition.
• Collectibility: While the novel was a massive bestseller in Victorian times, mid-century reprints in “Fair” condition are generally modest in monetary value, often appealing more to readers of vintage fiction or collectors of specific publisher series rather than high-end book investors.

Ellen Buckingham Mathews (26 August 1849 – 10 March 1920) was a popular English novelist during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was also known as Mrs Reeves after her marriage in 1877 to Dr. Henry Albert Reeves (1841–1914) but was best known under her pen name, Helen Mathers. She was born in Misterton, Somerset, to Thomas Mathews, a horsehair manufacturer, and Maria Ann Mathews. Her first novel, Comin’ thro’ the Rye was published in 1875. It was partly based on people in her life and on her own early romantic experiences. She also acknowledged Rhoda Broughton as an early influence. She continued to write until her death. She was educated at a boarding school in Chantry near Frome in Somerset. In her first novel, Comin’ thro’ the Rye, she describes some of her experiences at school. Mr Russell in the novel was the Rev. Mr. Fussell in real life, who was the Lord of the manor and founder of the school. In the novel she calls the village Charteris. From 1875 to 1895, the novel sold more than 35,000 copies.Due to a confusion of titles, some sources attribute a number of books by Scottish novelist Anne S. Swan to Mathers. Mathers published a short novel entitled Land o’ the Leal, by the Author of Comin’ Thro’ the Rye” in 1878. She died in Brondesbury in 1920.

NOTE 1:

“Comin’ Thro’ the Rye” is a famous 1782 Scottish song and poem adapted by Robert Burns from earlier traditional verses. 

Meaning and Lyrics

• The title means “Coming Through the Rye” in Scots. 
• The famous opening lines are: “Gin a body meet a body, comin’ thro’ the rye, / Gin a body kiss a body, need a body cry?” (“Gin” means “if”). 
• The song explores private desire and suggests that a casual meeting or a kiss in a tall field of grain is a personal matter, not public business. 

Cultural Impact

• J.D. Salinger’s famous novel The Catcher in the Rye takes its title and a central misinterpretation from the poem. The main character mishears the lyrics as “if a body catch a body,” imagining children playing in a field of rye near a cliff.
• The melody shares a similar shape to the tune used for “Auld Lang Syne”.