[Rarebooks] fa: LORD BYRON - Writings in THE MONTHLY REVIEW 1812-13 - in Original Wraps/Slipcase

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, November 13. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/hgtr79z

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

[Lord Byron:] The Monthly Review for January, 1812 [and] February, 1813. London: Printed by Strahan and Preston,…And sold by Becket and Porter, 1812-13. Two volumes, 8vo (22 cm), in original navy blue printed wraps, stitch-bound as issued. Some toning and light soiling to the wraps of one volume, light bumping and curling to the untrimmed edges of the text blocks, original owner's signature (Paul Methuen, Esq.) at the top of the front wraps, else very clean and fresh, securely bound and housed in a handsome custom-made cloth slipcase. A nice presentation of some uncommon Byroniana.

Two separate issues of The Monthly Review containing reviews written by Lord Byron (unsigned). The Jan. 1812 issue (pp. 54-60) contains his review of Poems by William Robert Spencer: "B wrote it between 19 Dec. 1811 and the end of the year at home at Newstead, where his friends William Harness and Francis Hodgson (the principal editor of the Review, and then occupied with getting ready the Jan. number) were guests at the time… Spencer (1770-1834)… was a poet, wit, and dandy, a frequent guest at Carlton House, and highly popular at the time…" The Feb. 1813 issue (pp. 203-05) contains Byron's review of Neglected Genius: A Poem by W. H. Ireland: "Although B had written to Hodgson on 3 Jan. saying 'I cannot review in the "Monthly"; in fact I can just now do nothing, at least with a pen,' he must have been persuaded to do so either by Hodgson himself or possibly by Lady Oxford—with whom he was deeply involved at the time. Accordingly, he wrote the review, either at Eywood, the country home of the Oxford…, or in London, some time between 3 Jan. and the end of the month… It was the last review he was to contribute to the Monthly… The review is written with heavy irony, and, while amusing and good-natured in tone, is thoroughly dismissive of Ireland's volume—the title of which was without doubt borrowed from B (see EBSR 1.800: 'Neglected Genius! Let me turn to you'"). (Descriptions from Lord Byron: The Complete Miscellaneous Prose, Andrew Nicholson, ed.)