Stories from the Italian Poets: with Lives of the Writers. London: Chapman and Hall, 1846.
First edition, second issue.
Two volumes. Twelvemo. xviii, 417, [1]; [iii]-vi, 515, [1] pp., with the half-title intended for volume two not yet removed from first signature of volume one. Blue publisher’s cloth, covers decorated in blind, spines decorated in blind and gilt. Aside from some light scattered foxing in volume II, and some minor bumping to corners, a very good uncut and partially unopened copy.
First edition, second issue, with the imprint at the end of volume one reading “Levey, Robson, and Franklyn,†and with no advertisements at the end of volume one. An important work which provides biographical and critical notes on the poets of Italy, including Dante, Boiardo, Tasso, Ariosto, and Pulci to name a few. “The purpose of these volumes is, to add stock of tales from the Italian writers; to retain as much of the poetry of the originals as it is in the power of the writer’s prose to compass; and to furnish careful biographical notices of the authors.†The appendices are of special interest, as they include some of the original Italian texts, and provide the stories of Francesca and Paolo, and Ugolino from Dante’s Inferno.
Hunt (1784-1859) was a British poet, essayist and literary critic who counted amongst his friends the likes of Lord Byron, Keats, Shelley, Charles Lamb and Charles Cowden to name a few. His life was marked with illness and financial difficulty, which both began in his childhood and continued with him throughout his life. He was a prolific poet and essayist, and was known for the brightness and symmetry of his poetry, but perhaps his most valued work was his autobiography.
Brewer-Hunt, pp. 219
ID:
3584
$
300