Description: Asking $1000 (prices range between $435 and $3797, with a similar sets at between $750 and $2800) [Mary SHELLEY (editor, nee WOLLSTONECRAFT)]. – Percy Bysshe SHELLEY. The Poetical Works… edited by Mrs. Shelley. London: Edward Moxon, 1839. 4 volumes, small octavo (6 3/8 x 4 inches). Half-titles, but no adverts. Engraved portrait frontispiece in vol.I. (Title to vol.I brittle, chipped and repaired on the verso using acid-free archival paper-repair tape). Early-20th century blue morocco gilt by Bayntun of Bath, covers with an interlocking all-over design in gilt, the spines in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second and fourth compartments, the others with a repeat pattern in gilt, gilt turn-ins with pointille-work, watered silk pastedowns and endpapers, gilt edges (spines of the 1st and 4th volumes chipped at the head, joints weak, upper covers of vols. I and IV detached). Provenance: Herman & Paul Jaehne (bookplates). First collected edition with great notes / editing by the author of Frankenstein: the bindings need attention but this, nevertheless, remains an attractive set. The publication of pirated editions of selections of Shelley’s work persuaded his father to allow Mary Shelley to shepherd an authorized complete edition through the presses, adding notes which are now seen as “masterpieces of editing, … [which added] so immeasurably to the reader's understanding that nobody would now consider printing Shelley's poems without them” (St. Clair) "Mary Shelley brought Shelley into the mainstream of the national culture. He was no longer the author of a notorious banned poem [Queen Mab] only obtainable from shops specializing in blasphemy, sedition and advice on birth control. He was the prophet of Prometheus Unbound, one of the most ambitious attempts ever made to uplift life by literature, and of other works such as the "Ode to the West Wind". The notes that Mary added are masterpieces of editing, adding so immeasurably to the reader's understanding that nobody would now consider printing Shelley's poems without them" (St Clair, p. 492). Dunbar, Shelley Studies 345; Granniss 88; Wise, p. 87. St Clair, The Godwins and the Shelleys: The Biography of a Family, 1989.
Price: 1000 USD
Location: Lakeville, Connecticut
End Time: 2024-09-11T19:27:17.000Z
Shipping Cost: 14.38 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Binding: Leather
Origin: English
Place of Publication: London
Publisher: Edward Moxon & Company, Dover Street
Subject: Literature & Fiction
Modified Item: No
Year Printed: 1839
Original/Facsimile: Original
Language: English
Special Attributes: FIRST EDITION
Author: Percy Bysshe Shelley, [Mary Wollstonecraft Editor]
Original/Reproduction: Original
Topic: Classics
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
