Description

6 volumes. Early Issue of the collection. Illustrated throughout with fine full-page engravings and illustrations including frontispieces and all from the wonderful original designs created by Stothard, Burney, Westall and others. 8vo, very handsomely bound in full Regency dark-green crushed straight-grained morocco of the period, the spines with raised bands, three compartments lettered and numbered in gilt, the covers elaborately gilt tooled at the borders with single gilt fillet rules surrounding elaborate roll tooling in gllt surrounding a roll tool in blind, turnovers roll-tooled in gilt, the edges of the bindings gilt stopped, all edges gilt. 258; 203; 226; 188; 212; 201 pp. A very handsome set, in a pleasing state of preservation, still very bright and clean, the bindings in fine order and richly gilt, the text-block still quite fresh and clean, the plates with some light browning or mellowing as is typical with the paper used for the illustrations. Once a copy owned by the Liverpool Reference Library, the books still retain the elaborate library bookplates at the pastedowns.

Edizione: a quite rare, very authentic and handsome set of one of the great translations of this masterwork from the ancients and which today is still considered as the "wellspring" of all literature. additionally, this set includes the long introductory essays to homer that were penned by parnell and commented upon by both pope and dr. johnson. pope's brilliant translation of homer relied on the sense of the texts of chapman, hobbes, ogilby, dacier and others--but "others have produced translations; pope's work is a poem" (chel, ix, p. 84). its fame and longevity are due more to pope's desire to keep the spirit and fire of the epic alive than any obligation to render homer in academic exactitude. the engraved illustrations and designs, original to the period capture the essence of these wonderful poetic constructions. <br> alexander pope was an interesting figure in that he was raised as a roman catholic in england and was especially intellectually precocious. he was introduced to significant intellectual and political figures at an early age due to his connection with the roman catholic community in london. while still young, he showed a mature talent in writing poetry--”the town was fairly dazzled by the young poet’s learning, judgment and felicity of expression.” [ency britt]