[Rarebooks] fa: M. G. LEWIS Walter Scott - TALES OF WONDER 1801 - Gothic Horror/First Edition

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, July 24. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/jklssfg

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


M.G. Lewis [Walter Scott, Henry Bunbury, Robert Southey, Robert Burns, et al:] Tales of Wonder. London: Printed by W. Bulmer and Co. Cleveland-Row, for the Author; and sold by J. Bell, 1801. FIRST EDITION. Two volumes bound in one. Tall 8vo (26 cm) rebound in modern 1/4 leather and marbled boards, gilt-lettered spine labels; [4], 236 pp.; [4], 237-482 pp. Tymn, Horror Literature 6-32; Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction Writers, p. 181; Punter, New Companion to the Gothic, p. 82; NCBEL III 743.

A groundbreaking anthology of Gothic verse collected by, and largely written by, the poet, playwright, novelist and member of parliament M.G. "Monk" Lewis, so nicknamed due to the notoriety of his eroto-gothic masterwork The Monk, published five years earlier. Described as  "the first known published and single most important horror verse anthology in English" (Tymn), Tales of Wonder is equally notable for the first appearance in print of four poems by Walter Scott: "Glenfinlas" (described by Scott himself as his "first serious attempt in verse"), "The Eve of Saint John", "The Wild Huntsman" (a revised and improved version), and a translation from Goethe, "Frederick and Alice." Also included are first or early appearances of Gothic poems and ballads by the future poet laureate Robert Southey (including "Cornelius Agrippa's Bloody Book," a possible source for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein), Robert Burns ("Tam O' Shanter"), and the caricaturist Henry Bunbury ("The Little Grey Man"). Southey, perhaps with an eye on his future laureateship, had his contributions removed from subsequent editions.

Some scattered browning and spotting, most noticeable on the title-pages and the first two leaves, occasional touches of soiling, top fore-corners of two leaves torn with loss (not affecting any text), a few corners bumped/creased, early owner's signature to the title-pages, otherwise quite clean and sound, firmly and handsomely rebound.