Books

A finely bound copy of Browning's most enduring collection, from the library of Chicago real estate magnate Abel E. Berland (1915-2010), with his bookplates on the front pastedowns. Men and Women was Robert's "Sonnets from the Portuguese", being the first published after his marriage to fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett. The collection features many love poems, including "Love Among the Ruins", "Any Wife to Any Husband", "Love in a Life", "Life in a Love", "The Last Ride Together", and "Two in the Campagna", and also includes highly significant longer poems such as "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" and "Andrea Del Sarto". Two vols, small quarto (134 x 104 mm). Contemporary brown crushed morocco, spines with two raised bands lettered and tooled in gilt, double gilt fillet to boards enclosing elaborately tooled frames, gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, brown bookmarkers. Photogravure frontispiece with tissue guard to each vol. A fine copy.

Published in 1855, 'Men and Women' is a collection of fifty-one poems by Robert Browning, which some regard as his masterpiece. It includes dramatic monologues and explores themes of love, society, and philosophy.