Strachey, Lytton

Eminent Victorians

New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons/ The Knickerbocker Press, 1918. First American Edition. Hardcover. "It is not by the direct method of a scrupulous narration that the explorer of the past can hope to depict that singular epoch (the Victorian era). If he is wise, he will adopt a subtler strategy...He will row out over that great ocean of material, and lower down into it, here and there, a little bucket, which will bring up to the light of day some characteristic specimen, from those far depths, to be examined with a careful curiosity. Guided by these considerations, I have written the ensuing studies. I have attempted, through the medium of biography, to present some Victorian visions to the modern eye." (from Preface, pg. v) The classic multiple biography by (Giles) Lytton Strachey (1880-1932), the canonical British author who was a founding member of the legendary Bloomsbury Group (which included Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster et al.). With deep psychological insight leavened with wit & good humor, Strachey explores the lives of four indeed eminent Victorians who exemplified the essence of Britain & its Empire at its zenith: Cardinal Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892), the scholarly Anglican & ultimately Catholic cleric; Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the great social reformer & founder of modern nursing as we know it; Dr. Thomas Arnold (1795-1842), the esteemed educator & historian (who was the father of poet Matthew Arnold) & General Charles Gordon (1833-1885), the flamboyant military leader who legendarily fought & died for the old British Empire (see our item No. 4918). Offered here is the first American edition, published the same year as the first British edition (1918), in a sumptuous half-crushed morocco binding. With frontispiece portrait of Cardinal Manning, portraits of the other subjects preceding their biographies & of other figures therein. We found & have retained, between blank patterned front paste-down & endpaper, a clear plastic bookmark with sale-barcode sticker for this volume of the most venerable Strand Book Store in NYC ("Eight Miles of Books!"). Also retained, between pages 248-249, is a bookmark from bookseller Bert Babcock, printed on both sides & in very fine condition with only a bit of faint creasing & edge-corner wear. Among the most important & influential works of biography in the English language; The foundational Lytton collectible in one of its very rarest & most desirable original forms. In fine condition without dust jacket
(undoubtedly as issued in this special binding), with light rubbing to dark-blue leather, gilt & cloth binding (gilt on spine & covers only slightly dulled & mostly intact); mild wear at edges & corners incl. slight loss of surface color; slight browning to cloth portions of covers esp. at/ near edges; mild browning & occasional spotting to side & lower edges of text block (both untrimmed as issued); gilt upper edge of same with mild rubbing, faint scratching. Interior fine with small rectangular sticker at blank upper left edge/ corner of front paste-down to which is affixed a smaller sticker with framed, typed numerals (from former seller or collector?); contemporary descriptive information hand-written in pencil at blank verso of front endpaper; later writing in pencil at blank opposite page (presumably from The Strand); fragment of blue silk bookmark-thread between above pages; tiny bumps & short, faint creases at blank side edges & corners of some page leaves. Fine. [Item #4923]

Price: $150.00