Trench, Charles Chenevix (Gordon, Charles)

Charley Gordon: An Eminent Victorian Reassessed

ISBN: 0713908955
London, England: Allen Lane/ Penguin Books Ltd, 1978. First Edition. Hardcover. "The personality and career of General (Charles) Gordon were extraordinary even among those of Victorian heroes of Empire. He went from Sebastopol and the Redan to action against Chinese rebels and East African slavers; from governorships and commands all over Africa to the Sudan and finally to that unnecessary death by the Nile...What drove him? Imperialism, religion, ambition, do-goodery? The image persists of Lytton Strachey's toping, neurotically Christian defender of Khartoum. The truth is partly there- but in fact the reality was more interesting, more full of achievement and more odd. Charles Chenevix Trench presents us with a full portrait of this eccentric servant of Empire- a volatile, chain-smoking fundamentalist, impossible to his colleagues and anathema to his superiors...based on an extensive study of contemporary sources and Gordon's own papers, many of them hitherto unused." (from front flap) A biography of General Charles George Gordon (1833-1885), the flamboyant, swashbuckling British military leader whose adventures in the Crimean War, China, Egypt & Khartoum in the Sudan (where he died in battle) have become legendary. Gordon was among the four subjects of Lytton Strachey's classic Eminent Victorians (see our item No. 4923), specifically his dramatic end as he led a doomed defense of Khartoum under siege. The acclaimed British author Charles Chevenix Trench (1914-2003) was himself a "servant of Empire" as an officer born in British-Imperial India who fought bravely in Europe during World War II. Here he provides a full account of the stranger-than-fiction life & times of this quintessential figure of the British Empire at its 19th-century peak during the Victorian era. We found & have retained, between blank rear endpaper & pastedown, an attractive, relatively large bookmark from the venerable British bookseller Autolycus with its logo & "Thanks" cursively hand-written in bold black ink, printed on one side & in very fine condition with only tiny pinholes from staple removal near upper left corner; a few faint creases at edges. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, first UK edition, presumed first printing with no references to further printings on copyright page. An intriguing & rewarding military-historical-biographical collectible in its rarest native-original form. Book in near-fine condition with several small streaks of rubbing-residue incl. very slight loss of brown-mottled surface paper to front, back covers & spine; a touch of wear at edges & esp. corners of same; very light rubbing, faint scratching to edges of text block. Interior also near-fine with hand-written contemporary gift inscription to former owner in blue ink dated "Christmas 78" near lower right corner of blank front endpaper; small areas of rubbing-residue thereon & at blank rear endpaper; small area of light blue ink smudging to blank lower margin/ edge of title page. Dust jacket near-fine with some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of front, back covers & flaps; a touch of fading to salmon-colored spine; one vertical, narrowly rectangular area of rubbing-residue at each flap, largely overlapping but not effecting legibility of texts thereon. Near Fine / Near Fine. [Item #4918]

Price: $35.00