The PennZone

POOLE, U.K. - PennZone -- P-Wave Classics has opened pre-orders for Volume II of Robert Bage's Hermsprong; or, Man as He Is Not (1796), continuing its new three-volume edition of one of the most original and neglected novels of the late eighteenth century.

Admired by Sir Walter Scott but largely overlooked by modern readers, Hermsprong is a bold work of social satire and political thought, written in the turbulent years following the American and French Revolutions. Through the figure of Hermsprong, an American-raised outsider unencumbered by Britain's rigid social hierarchies, Robert Bage examines class, authority, gender and the assumptions that underpin polite society.

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The new P-Wave Classics edition restores the novel to its original three-volume structure, allowing modern readers to experience the work as its first readers encountered it in 1796.

Volume I was published in May and introduced readers to Hermsprong, Maria Fluart and the social world they challenge. Volume II deepens the novel's exploration of power, freedom and moral authority as the consequences of those challenges become increasingly difficult for the established order to ignore.

"One of the pleasures of preparing this edition has been discovering how modern the novel often feels," said editor L.A. Davenport. "Bage combines humour, intelligence and social criticism in a way that still speaks directly to contemporary readers. Restoring the original three-volume structure allows those qualities to emerge with a clarity that many modern editions lose."

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Alongside the publication programme, P-Wave Press has published a series of essays exploring the novel's themes, including class and social status, provincial intellectual life, the character of Maria Fluart, and debates over women's education and equality in the 1790s.

Volume II of Hermsprong will be published in paperback and ebook editions on 4 August 2026 and is now available for pre-order through major online retailers.

Publication details
Title: Hermsprong; or, Man as He Is Not — Volume II
Author: Robert Bage
Imprint: P-Wave Classics
Format: Paperback and ebook
Publication date: 4 August 2026