Balaustion’s Adventure.
£125.00
Publisher
Smith, Elder and Co., 15, Waterloo Place.
Place
London
Date
1871
Synopsis
Including a transcript from euripides.
Item Description
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, in fours. 6.75 x 4.5 inches. [iv] + 170 pp. Bound in red leather, gilt, boards with decorative gilt border; spine in compartments with raised bands, decorated gilt. All edges gilt. Inner dentelles. A little wear to extremities, including corners and head and tail of spine; otherwise a fine clean copy. 1871 gift inscription on rear pastedown. First edition of the long poem by Robert Browning (1812-99). It includes a transcript of the Greek tragedy, Alcestis (first performed 438 BC), by the Greek dramatist, Euripides (c.480-c.406 BC). See the article by Clyde de L Ryals, 'Balaustion's Adventure: Browning's Greek Tragedy' (PMLA, Vol. 88, 1973), who describes it as: 'The poet's message to his age...when civilisation seems on the verge of complete disruption, the spirit if not the forms of the past can enliven the present and redeem the individual from despair' (JSTOR website).
[Stock No. 28738]
