THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS.
by NEWMAN, John Henry.:
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London, Burns Lambert and Oates, 1866.. SECOND EDITION 1866, PRINTED THE SAME YEAR AS THE FIRST EDITION. Small 8vo, approximately 120 x 75 mm, 4¾ x 3 inches, pages: [4], [5]-55, collation: A1-D4, original publisher's blind stamped brown limp cloth, gilt title to upper cover, original pale yellow endpapers. Slight rubbing to binding, first pastedown slightly creased, title page has slight blemish at the bottom due to adhesion by the endpaper, shallow turning crease to top corners of first few pages, otherwise a very good copy. The Dream of Gerontius consists of the prayer of a dying man, and angelic and demonic responses. The poem, written after Newman's conversion from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, explores his new Catholic-held beliefs of the journey from death through Purgatory to God and thence to Paradise. The poem follows the main character as he nears death and then reawakens as a soul, preparing for judgment. Newman uses the death and judgement of Gerontius as a prism through which the reader is drawn to contemplation of their own fear of death and sense of unworthiness before God. His depiction of the overwhelmed Gerontius in Phase Seven of the poem, who begs to be taken for purgatorial cleansing rather than diminish the perfection of God and his courts of Saints and Angels by his continued presence, has become a popular expression of man's desire for healing through redemptive suffering. This scene of the poem has done much for the rehabilitation of the doctrine of purgatory which had previously come to be seen as a fearful terror rather than a state of final purification essentially positive in nature. Newman said that the poem "was written by accident and it was published by accident". He wrote it up in fair copy from fifty-two scraps of paper between 17 January and 7 February 1865 and published it in May and June of the same year, in two parts in the Jesuit periodical The Month. The poem inspired a choral work of the same name by Edward Elgar in 1900. (Wikipedia). MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Roger Middleton (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 47746
- Title
- THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS.
- Author
- NEWMAN, John Henry.:
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Place of Publication
- London, Burns Lambert and Oates, 1866.
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- RELIGIOUS POETRY CHRISTIANITY CATHOLICS CATHOLICISM PURGATORY
Terms of Sale
Roger Middleton
About the Seller
Roger Middleton
About Roger Middleton
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fair
- is a worn book that has complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc....