Shelley, Percy Bysshe | An ornately bound Prometheus Unbound

Property from the Library of John M. Schiff

Shelley, Percy Bysshe

Prometheus Unbound. A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts. London: C and J Ollier, 1820

8vo (205 x 130 mm). Half-title with advertisement of four of Shelley's works and Merchant's imprint on verso, title-page, "miscellaneous" spelled correctly on table of contents, fly-title with Dramatis Personae on verso, fly-title for Miscellaneous Poems; lacking the single leaf of publisher's advertisements, very lightly toned. Ornately bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe in dark blue morocco, rounded beveled edges, covers with four gilt ruled borders, enclosing another gilt ruled border with four gilt fleurons and green morocco inlays at corner, enclosing a large central gilt floral wreath motif with red morocco inlays, surrounding a monogram of Shelley's initials in light blue morocco outlined in gilt, spine with raised bands in six compartments, similarly gilt tooled and gilt lettered, board edges and turn-ins gilt, brown morocco doublures ornately tooled and ruled in gilt and with red morocco inlays, top edge gilt, brown silk free endpapers. Housed in a cloth clamshell box.

First edition, second issue of Shelley's Romantic closet drama, inspired by Aeschylus' Promethia. In the Preface, he writes, "This Poem was chiefly written upon the mountainous ruins of the Baths of Caracalla... The bright sky of Rome, and the effect of the vigorous awakening spring in that divinest climate, and the new life with which it drenched the spirits even to intoxication, were the inspiration of this drama." Prior to its publication, Shelley wrote to his publisher in September of 1819 and remarked of the work, "it is in my judgement, of a higher character than anything I have yet attempted; and is perhaps less an imitation of any thing that has gone before it."

A sumptuously bound copy of this classic of Romantic literature

REFERENCE:

Forman, Shelley 59; Granniss 54; Hayward 228