“THE CRY OF REVOLT… THE ASPIRATION TOWARDS A NEW SOCIETY…”

ARNOLD, Matthew. The Works. London: Macmillan, 1903-4. Fifteen volumes. Octavo, contemporary full crushed blue morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spines and boards, raised bands, crushed brown morocco doublures, watered silk endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut and largely unopened. $5500.

Edition de Luxe, one of only 775 sets produced, of Arnold’s elegant and influential poetry and prose, beautifully bound.

"The cry of revolt sounds in the poetry of Arnold's earlier life; the aspiration towards a new society in the prose writings of his later years" (Baugh et al., 1407). The most modern of the major Victorian poets in outlook, Arnold remains best known for "Dover Beach," the melancholy poem about the loss of faith he wrote on his honeymoon; other such notable verses as "The Scholar-Gipsy," "Stanzas from the Grand Chartreuse," "Thyrsis" and "Empedocles on Etna" all appear here. This edition also contains his critical prose, including Culture and Anarchy, Essays in Criticism and On the Study of Celtic Literature. Three volumes of correspondence complete the set. With engraved frontispiece portrait in Volume I.

A fine set.