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The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni
by Hawthorne, Nathaniel
- Used
- Very Good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good/No Jacket
- Seller
-
Chico, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1860. These are Very Good copies of the First Edition, in a mixed state, assumed the Second Printing (there were three). Brown publisher's cloth bindings, blindstamped on the spine and front cover; titling in gilt on the spine. Clean texts; Volume One is xi, 283 pages, with the 16-page publisher's catalog in the rear - dated March, 1860. The Preface is prior to the Table of Contents. Volume two has 288 pages. These are ex-library copies, but with minimal treatments. The front paste-downs have bookplates from the "Baker Free Library" (in New Hampshire, still in existence) and "Presented by Henry M. Baker" (1841-1912). Both volumes previuously had pockets attached to the rear paste-down. Rubbed at the head and foot of the spines; some bubbling to covers. Gilt is dulled but readable. In archival plastic protectors.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall.
Synopsis
The fragility-and the durability-of human life and art dominate this story of American expatriates in Italy in the mid-nineteenth century. Befriended by Donatello, a young Italian with the classical grace of the "Marble Faun," Miriam, Hilda, and Kenyon find their pursuit of art taking a sinister turn as Miriam's unhappy past precipitates the present into tragedy. Hawthorne's 'International Novel' dramatizes the confrontation of the Old World and the New and the uncertain relationship between the 'authentic' and the 'fake' in life as in art. The author's evocative descriptions of classic sites made The Marble Faun a favorite guidebook to Rome for Victorian tourists, but this richly ambiguous symbolic romance is also the story of a murder, and a parable of the Fall of Man. As the characters find their civilized existence disrupted by the awful consequences of impulse, Hawthorne leads his readers to question the value of Art and Culture and addresses the great evolutionary debate which was beginning to shake Victorian society.
Read More: Identifying first editions of The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni
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Details
- Seller
- Quercus Rare Books
(US)
- Seller's Inventory #
- 005804
- Title
- The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni
- Author
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- Ticknor and Fields
- Place of Publication
- Boston
- Date Published
- 1860
- Size
- 12mo - over 6¾" - 7&
- Bookseller catalogs
- American Literature;
Terms of Sale
Quercus Rare Books
We accept checks and money orders in US Dollars. Credit card orders are accepted through Biblio. California residents add appropriate sales tax. Items are returnable for any reason within ten days of receipt (please email or call first before returning item).
About the Seller
Quercus Rare Books
Biblio member since 2006
Chico, California
About Quercus Rare Books
Quercus Books seeks out and provides to the discriminating Reader or Collector noteworthy books in the First Edition. Our particular focus is on Modern Literature (roughly from the Second World War to the present) and Irish Authors. We also retain a small stock of non-fiction titles, mostly in the fields of American Western History, American Indians, and the American Civil War. Member of IOBA - the Independent Online Booksellers Association.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- 12mo
- A duodecimo is a book approximately 7 by 4.5 inches in size, or similar in size to a contemporary mass market paperback. Also...
- 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...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- 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"...
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- 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...
- Paste-down
- The paste-down is the portion of the endpaper that is glued to the inner boards of a hardback book. The paste-down forms an...
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