New York: H.W. Derby, 1861.
Price: $650.00
Hardcover. Four volumes. Volume One with an engraved frontispiece portrait of the author. Half polished calf, marbled paperboards, spines with raised bands bordered in black creating six compartments each repeating an Aldine leaf stamped in black save for the second and fourth from the top which have a tan leather label and a black leather label respectively each with gilt lettering, all page edges marbled, and marbled endpapers. The boards and page edges are sunned (only noticeable by how bold the bottom edges and endpapers remain), all with some wear along the edges, Volume Two and Three each with a small abrasion on the spine, overall very good or better with the hinges sound and pages clean.
Volume One - The Italian Poets Translated into English Prose: Containing a Summary in Prose of the Poems of Dante, Pulci, Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso.
Volume Two - Selections from The English Poets Volume II: Wit and Humor, and Volume III: Imagination and Fancy.
Volume Three - A Book for a Corner: Or Selections in Prose and Verse from Authors the Most Suited to That Mode of Enjoyment: Series I and Series II.
Volume Four: Essays and Miscellanies Selected from *The Indicator* and *Companion*.
Although this set may appear a bit jumbled (*English Poets Volume I* is absent for instance), each title page prints the same publisher and date (H.W. Derby, 1861) and the spines are labeled "Volume I" through "Volume IV" with no indication that there are others. Furthermore, listings in *OCLC* support that this was issued as a four volume set as presented here. A handsomely bound survey of Hunt's work.
Item #622041
