The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Three Other Poems (Folio Society Limited Edition)
COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor (illus. Harry Brockway). The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Three Other Poems. London: The Folio Society, 2010.
Oversize 4to. Quarter vellum and red boards. Spine lettered in 22-carat gold. Cover illustrated and stamped in three shades of foil by Harry Brockway. Upper edge gilt, others uncut. 205 pp., with 16 mounted colour plates by Harry Brockway. All text printed on verso pages only, with facing blank recto pages throughout. Signed and numbered by the artist on tipped-in frontispiece. Housed in charcoal buckram solander case. First Folio Society edition. Limited to 1,000 numbered copies.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner first appeared in the 1798 Lyrical Ballads, a joint publication with Wordsworth that announced the English Romantic movement and the Rime remains the longest and strangest poem in that collection. A tale of supernatural crime and punishment set on a becalmed sea, narrated by a mariner compelled to repeat his story to strangers until the end of time, haunted by what he did to an albatross and what that act cost him and everyone around him.
Coleridge was twenty-five when he wrote it, and it is one of those poems that seems to have arrived fully formed from somewhere not entirely explained by the ordinary processes of literary composition. It has attracted illustrators from Gustave Doré onwards, each bringing their own understanding of its particular quality of nightmare. Harry Brockway — beloved for his wood-engravings for the Folio Society's Frankenstein, also in this collection — brings a printmaker's sensibility to the task: dense, darkly atmospheric plates in which the supernatural elements are handled with restraint, allowing the horror to accumulate in the margins of things seen rather than in direct confrontation.
The Folio Society's decision to print the text on verso pages only, leaving each recto facing blank, is a considered one: it gives the reader space to sit with the poem before turning the page, and ensures that when a plate appears it commands the full attention of the opening. The result is a book that enacts something of the poem's own deliberate, measured quality of dread.
Volume unopened. Mint condition, in original tissue shipping wrappers. Some mild foxing to shipping tissue paper. Solander case fine.
This book is currently on display in our Paddington store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: [email protected]
Catalogue Number: HH000215
Please note: This item is very large and heavy. Within Australia it may require additional postage costs. For international shipping please contact us for a quote.
Original: $641.25
-65%$641.25
$224.44
Description
COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor (illus. Harry Brockway). The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Three Other Poems. London: The Folio Society, 2010.
Oversize 4to. Quarter vellum and red boards. Spine lettered in 22-carat gold. Cover illustrated and stamped in three shades of foil by Harry Brockway. Upper edge gilt, others uncut. 205 pp., with 16 mounted colour plates by Harry Brockway. All text printed on verso pages only, with facing blank recto pages throughout. Signed and numbered by the artist on tipped-in frontispiece. Housed in charcoal buckram solander case. First Folio Society edition. Limited to 1,000 numbered copies.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner first appeared in the 1798 Lyrical Ballads, a joint publication with Wordsworth that announced the English Romantic movement and the Rime remains the longest and strangest poem in that collection. A tale of supernatural crime and punishment set on a becalmed sea, narrated by a mariner compelled to repeat his story to strangers until the end of time, haunted by what he did to an albatross and what that act cost him and everyone around him.
Coleridge was twenty-five when he wrote it, and it is one of those poems that seems to have arrived fully formed from somewhere not entirely explained by the ordinary processes of literary composition. It has attracted illustrators from Gustave Doré onwards, each bringing their own understanding of its particular quality of nightmare. Harry Brockway — beloved for his wood-engravings for the Folio Society's Frankenstein, also in this collection — brings a printmaker's sensibility to the task: dense, darkly atmospheric plates in which the supernatural elements are handled with restraint, allowing the horror to accumulate in the margins of things seen rather than in direct confrontation.
The Folio Society's decision to print the text on verso pages only, leaving each recto facing blank, is a considered one: it gives the reader space to sit with the poem before turning the page, and ensures that when a plate appears it commands the full attention of the opening. The result is a book that enacts something of the poem's own deliberate, measured quality of dread.
Volume unopened. Mint condition, in original tissue shipping wrappers. Some mild foxing to shipping tissue paper. Solander case fine.
This book is currently on display in our Paddington store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: [email protected]
Catalogue Number: HH000215
Please note: This item is very large and heavy. Within Australia it may require additional postage costs. For international shipping please contact us for a quote.
