Books

SIX VOLUMES. FIRST KATE WARREN EDITION. 8vo.(6.8 x 4.4 inches). Illustrated frontis to each volume - 3 portraits and 3 sepia photographic views (River Blackwater, County Cork, ; Ruins of Kilcolman, Spenser's home in Ireland, ; Glengarriff, County Cork.) each with a tissue guard. Each volume with an extra, decorative title page. A fine and clean set with a few of the gatherings still unopened. Finely bound, by Riviere, in early twentieth century quarter vellum with single raised bands. Green title labels, ruled and lettered in gilt. Arts and Crafts style tall flower design with stems, leaves and flower in gilt to each spine. Blue cloth on boards. Top edges gilt, others untrimmed. Some minor marks to the cloth on a few of the boards but the spines all clean and the gilt bright so the set looks great on the shelf. A very attractive set of vellum bindings.

The Faerie Queene is a celebrated epic poem by Edmund Spenser, first published in 1590. The poem is an allegory praising Queen Elizabeth I and reflecting the values and ideologies of Elizabethan England. It is one of the longest poems in the English language and is renowned for its richly imaginative narrative and moral allegory.