[Rarebooks] fa: JAMES MORIER - THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA OF ISPAHAN IN ENGLAND - 1828

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, April 2. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/ll5gs8c

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

[James Justinian Morier:] The Adventures of Hajji Baba, of Ispahan, in England. London: John Murray, 1828. FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, small 8vo (16.75 cm), bound in half calf and marbled boards, with gilt-tooled spines and gilt-lettered morocco spine labels, marbled page edges; xxxii, 306 pp.; [2], 352 pp.; bound without the half-title page in vol. II. Sadleir 1794.

Charming satirical account of a fictional Persian delegation's visit to England, narrated by the Persian ambassador's alternately wide-eyed and  roguish secretary. A tale of Anglo-Islamic culture clash that is surprisingly sympathetic to its Eastern characters; if anything, it is the English who are the primary targets of the work's gentle satire. James Justinian Morier (1780-1849), British diplomat, traveller, and author, knew something of his subject: he had accompanied Lord Elgin through Egypt as his secretary, and from 1808-1816 served as a British representative at the court of the Shah, accompanying the Iranian envoy to England in 1809-10. He translated his experience into two popular  comic novels, this being the sequel to his Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan (1824).

Bindings with modest rubbing, contents with just a very few small occasional spots, otherwise clean and sharp, firmly and handsomely bound. An attractive set. With the engraved armorial bookplates of John Innes Pocock and later Kipling Society bookplates of a GDW[?] Chaplin.