35 LITERATURE “Sets The Standard And The Limits Of Literature”: Elegantly Bound Works Of Shakespeare 46SHAKESPEARE. Works. London, 1937. Ten volumes. Octavo, contemporary full tan calf gilt. $6500 Later edition of the Bard’s histories, comedies, tragedies and poems, limited to 100 sets for distribution in fine bindings by Rivière & Son. “Shakespeare is the Canon. He sets the standard and the limits of literature” (Harold Bloom). Each volume illustrated with frontispiece portrait. With commentaries, glossaries and study questions. Interior fine, very minor wear to binding. A beautiful set. Knight’s Illustrated “Imperial” Shakespeare, With 41 Engraved Plates, Handsomely Bound 47SHAKESPEARE, William. The Works of Shakespere. London, 1873. Two volumes. Thick folio, contemporary full crimson morocco gilt. $4200 The magisterial Victorian “Imperial Edition” of the Bard’s works, edited by Charles Knight, illustrated with 41 steel-engraved plates, including a frontispiece and additional engraved title page in each volume, beautifully bound. “From 1837 Knight had been occupied with what he himself probably regarded as his magnum opus. From the time of his boyish experience he had wished to edit Shakespeare… [his edition of Shakespeare was] ‘the first in the country conceived in the right spirit,’ and no future editor can afford to neglect it” (DNB). Includes Knight’s notes on each drama. Victorian illustrated editions such as Knight’s were “a major thread in the process of Shakespeare reception and cultural assimilation” (Sillars, The Illustrated Shakespeare 1709-1875, 28). Jaggard, 542. Scattered foxing, heavier at first and last few leaves of each volume, expert reinforcement to joints. Beautifully bound.
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