Idylls of the King.

TENNYSON, Alfred Lord.

Item Number: 21038

London: Edward Moxon & Co, 1859.

First edition, first issue without publisher’s imprint on verso of title page. Octavo, original cloth. Inscribed by the author on the title page in the year of publication, “Charlotte Schrieber from A Tennyson Augu 12th 1859.” The recipient Charlotte Schrieber was an English aristocrat who is best known as the first publisher in modern print format of The Mabinogion which is the earliest prose literature of Britain. In excellent condition with some light fading to the spine, with the recipient’s bookplate. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Rare signed and inscribed, especially in the year of publication.

With Idylls of the King, one of the giants of Victorian literature turned his considerable talents to the lore surrounding a larger-than-life British ruler. Alfred, Lord Tennyson cast his interpretation of Arthurian myth into the form of an epic poem, and his tales of Camelot soar to remarkable imaginative heights to trace the birth of a king; the founding, fellowship, and decline of the Round Table; and the king's inevitable departure. Encompassing romance, heroism, duty, and conflict, Tennyson's poetry charts the rise and fall of a legendary society. “By the early 19th century, the Arthurian legends had become a literary anachronism. Tennyson’s poetry brought about a rebirth of interest in the material and eventually placed it on a new plateau of respect and significance for writers and artists… Tennyson’s recreation of the Arthurian world is an attempt to reform his generation by showing the effects of sensuality, materialism and spiritual blindness” (Lacy, 446-49).