Books

Finely bound in half morocco with marbled boards and gilt ruling, edges worn, with one or two nics to extremities. T.E.G. Five raised bands to spine; title, author, year, and flower motif to compartments. Marbled endpapers to match boards. Small ex libris of `M.A. Elton` [Mary Augusta Elton, book collector] to upper left corner of front pastedown. Extremely faint foxing to first few and last pages. Includes the rare dedication leaf to `Harriet *****`, Shelley`s first wife, after title page. W. Clark`s imprint on page 182. Also includes the rare page of ads by Clark after p.182. Text and notes in the expurgated version, with words or phrases considered offensive replaced by a series of dashes. This text was published by Clark without Shelley`s permission, for which the publisher spent four months in prison. Extremely rare with the printed dedication to Harriet and the page of advertisements at the back. This exact book appears on p.177 of `A catalogue of a portion of the library of Charles Isaac Elton and Mary Augusta Elton`, published in 1891 by Quaritch in London. 182 p. Text in English. Beautiful copy of the first published edition of the book which launched Shelley`s literary career.

Queen Mab, A Philosophical Poem; With Notes, often referred to as Queen Mab, is the first large poetic work written by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822), the English Romantic poet. After substantial reworking, a portion of the text was later issued as The Daemon of the World.