EMINENT VICTORIANS: Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr. Arnold, General Gordon (First edition - fourth impression - in unique contemporary gilt cloth binding)

Lytton Strachey

Edité par Chatto & Windus, London, 1918

A propos de cet article

Fourth impression of the true first edition - title page dated 1918 with the further printings mentioned on the printer's page: First published - May 9, 1918; Second impression - May, 1918; Third impression - July, 1918; Fourth Impression - August, 1918. Illustrated with six black and white plates, as called for: Cardinal Manning (Frontispiece); John Henry Newman; Florence Nightingale; Dr. Arnold; General Gordon; Mr. Gladstone). This copy has been expertly rebound in the past, in green gilt cloth - presumably by the owner on the attractive bookplate on the front pastedown: Richard Sachs.

***A very good copy in dark-green cloth-covered boards with gilt titles and lining on the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked, with hardly any wear, just some light rubbing to the edges. Corners sharp. The spine is tight and without any reading creases. No reading lean. Page block edges trimmed. Internally also very good, with the aforementioned bookplate on the front pastedown. Very light offsetting to the endpapers, and unusually virtually no foxing even to the prelims. However - please note that a couple of pages have issues: p.17 has a stain in the margin; p.90 has a pencil note in the margin; p.139-143 have a smoke burn in the margins (original owner's stray cigarette?); p.179-183 top corner creased (please see scans). No dustwrapper. ***228mm x 148mm. 310 pages including contents and preface by the author to the fore, and bibliography at the back of the book. ***Contents: Cardinal Manning; Florence Nightingale; Dr. Arnold; The End of General Gordon.

***'"Eminent Victorians" is a book by Lytton Strachey (one of the older members of the Bloomsbury Group), first published in 1918, and consisting of biographies of four leading figures from the Victorian era. Its fame rests on the irreverence and wit Strachey brought to bear on three men and a woman who had, until then, been regarded as heroes: Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold and General Charles Gordon. While Nightingale is actually praised and her reputation enhanced, the book shows its other subjects in a less-than-flattering light, for instance, the intrigues of Cardinal Manning against Cardinal Newman. The book made Strachey's name and placed him firmly in the top rank of biographers. Strachey developed the idea for "Eminent Victorians" in 1912, when he was living on occasional journalism and writing dilettante plays and verse for his Bloomsbury friends. He went to live in the country at East Ilsley and started work on a book then called "Victorian Silhouettes", containing miniature biographies of a dozen notable Victorian personalities. In Nov 1912, he wrote to Virginia Woolf that their Victorian predecessors "seem to me a set of mouth bungled hypocrites". After his research into the life of Cardinal Manning, he realised he would have difficulty managing twelve lives. In the following year he moved to Wiltshire, where he stayed until 1915, by which time he had completed half the book. By then it was wartime, and Strachey's anti-war and anti-conscription activities were taking up his time. He hardened his views and concluded that the Victorian worthies had not just been hypocrites, but that they had bequeathed to his generation the "profoundly evil" system, "by which it is sought to settle international disputes by force". (Wiki)

***A unique example of the fourth impression of the true first edition nicely rebound. An early copy of Lytton Strachey's most famous book. Of interest to collectors of Lytton Strachey and the Bloomsbury Group. Whilst a scarce title in first impression, early impressions from 1918 in collectable condition are also very hard to find now. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9533

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: EMINENT VICTORIANS: Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr. Arnold, General Gordon (First edition - fourth impression - in unique contemporary gilt cloth binding)
• Éditeur: Chatto & Windus, London
• Date de parution: 1918
• Langue: anglais
• Reliure: Hardcover
• Édition: First Edition
• Impression: Fourth Impression
• État de l'article: Very Good
• État de la jaquette: No Jacket
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • First Editions
  • Antiquarian
  • Bloomsbury Authors