The Ingoldsby Legends or Mirth and Marvels
London: Richard Bentley, 1840; 1842; 1847. First edition. Hardcover. 3 vol. 8vo. [5], iv-v, [2], 2-338, [4]; [7], vi-vii, [2], 2-288, [2]; [5], iv-vi, [3], 2-364 pp. Full later purple morocco, with gold and green morocco flowers on each corner of each board, each board with a gold border, the edges of the boards with gold, gold decorations to the turn-ins, spines in six compartments with gold decorations and gold lettering; top edges gilt. Marbled endpapers and pastedowns. Each volume with a red ribbon bookmark bound in. Bound by Wood (likely Henry Thomas Wood). Volume one illustrated with an engraved title page and with decorative initials, and six additional plates (etchings). Volume two with an engraved title page, seven etched plates, three in-text woodcuts, and numerous decorative initials. Volume three with an engraved title page, and six additional plates, two of which are portraits of the author, Richard Barham (the other four are etchings, two by George Cruikshank, and two by John Leech). George Cruikshank, John Leech, and John Tenniel all contributed to the illustrations for the Ingoldsby series. Kunitz 34-35. NCBEL 365. Packer 166. Sadleir 27-29. Our First Series contains what Sadleir purports to be the earliest variant of the Public edition's page 236, the ballad incomplete with only the first and last couplets printed: "In what order should these be ranged? From the point of view of publishing procedure (though without any authority) I suggest the most likely sequence to have been as follows (a) Private, with incomplete Ballad; (b) Public, ditto ... ". Volume three contains a biography of Barham. The Ingoldsby Legends were far and away Barham's most successful publication. Barham was an English clergyman, humorist, and writer. Kunitz refers to Barham's writings and Barham himself as "unmistakably Kentish". Some of the ghost stories contained in the First Series are said to be from a Mrs. Hughes, an enormous influence on Barham's career. She pushed him to complete and publish his first novel, My Cousin Nicholas. The Ingoldsby stories were first published in Bentley's Miscellany, a magazine, in the late 1830s. They were edited by Charles Dickens. Richard Bentley, a friend of Barham, decided to release them in book form. Barham's series contains ghost stories, short literary prose, a poem grieving the death of his son, and general parodies of English life. Though largely popular, Barham's work was sometimes criticized for its parody of the Pope and Catholic doctrine. An avid drinker and cat lover (only writing when a cat attended him), Barham is remembered largely for The Ingoldsby Legends (a work once so popular, an average schoolboy would have passages memorized). A finely bound set of a cornerstone work in Victorian literature. Very Good or better. Item #000014649
The front joint of volume one faintly starting, the bindings remain strong. The top corners of each volume gently rubbed.
Price: $2,000.00