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Original boards, 1837
Details
Carlyle's French Revolution
Original boards, 1837
CARLYLE, Thomas (1795-1881). The French Revolution: A History. London: James Moyes for James Fraser, 1837.
First edition of Carlyle’s masterpiece, an excellent set in the original boards with letter by Carlyle laid in. The French Revolution is "a prose epic, teeming with colorful scenes of dramatic events and imaginative portraits of the leading revolutionaries. The book at once captured the English-speaking world, and has, outside France, moulded popular conception of the French Revolution down to the present day" (PMM). PMM 304.
Three volumes, 12mo (201 x 122 mm). Half-titles, 2-page publisher's advertisements at end of vol. II, contents to vol. II misbound before title. Original drab boards, paper spine labels, uncut (light wear along joints and at extremities); custom chemises, quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: William Brown (bookseller's tag) – Swann Galleries, New York, 20 October 1977, lot 41 – Abel E. Berland (Christie’s, New York, 8 October 2001, lot 21).
[WITH:] CARLYLE, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("T. Carlyle"), to the poet Robert Browning, Chelsea, 8 February 1845. 4 pages (107 x 95mm).
Carlyle writes to Browning about the upcoming publication of his Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: "Long ago there was a thought of snatching from some ungainly mortal, who now holds a letter of Oliver Cromwell's, a copy of the same. This is now about to be actually wanted. I have just settled, after infinite confused tumbling about in the business, that the Letters and Speeches of Oliver are straightway to come out as a separate Book." Carlyle at the beginning and end of the letter asks Browning why they have not seen him for some time, and requests that he come by: "You cannot be idle."
Original boards, 1837
CARLYLE, Thomas (1795-1881). The French Revolution: A History. London: James Moyes for James Fraser, 1837.
First edition of Carlyle’s masterpiece, an excellent set in the original boards with letter by Carlyle laid in. The French Revolution is "a prose epic, teeming with colorful scenes of dramatic events and imaginative portraits of the leading revolutionaries. The book at once captured the English-speaking world, and has, outside France, moulded popular conception of the French Revolution down to the present day" (PMM). PMM 304.
Three volumes, 12mo (201 x 122 mm). Half-titles, 2-page publisher's advertisements at end of vol. II, contents to vol. II misbound before title. Original drab boards, paper spine labels, uncut (light wear along joints and at extremities); custom chemises, quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: William Brown (bookseller's tag) – Swann Galleries, New York, 20 October 1977, lot 41 – Abel E. Berland (Christie’s, New York, 8 October 2001, lot 21).
[WITH:] CARLYLE, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("T. Carlyle"), to the poet Robert Browning, Chelsea, 8 February 1845. 4 pages (107 x 95mm).
Carlyle writes to Browning about the upcoming publication of his Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: "Long ago there was a thought of snatching from some ungainly mortal, who now holds a letter of Oliver Cromwell's, a copy of the same. This is now about to be actually wanted. I have just settled, after infinite confused tumbling about in the business, that the Letters and Speeches of Oliver are straightway to come out as a separate Book." Carlyle at the beginning and end of the letter asks Browning why they have not seen him for some time, and requests that he come by: "You cannot be idle."
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