"HOW DO I LOVE THEE? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS": ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING'S POEMS, INCLUDING HER SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE

BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett. Poetical Works. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1890. Six volumes. Small octavo, contemporary half red morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt. $2800.

Handsomely bound, illustrated six-volume set of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poems, including her Sonnets from the Portuguese.

Collected works of one of the most romantic figures of the 19th century, featuring her novel in verse Aurora Leigh as well as the beloved Sonnets from the Portuguese, along with her essays "Some Account of the Greek Christian Poets" and "The Book of the Poets." Five of the volumes open with engraved frontispiece portraits of Elizabeth Barrett Browning at different stages of her life; other engravings picture her sitting-room at Casa Guidi, Coxhoe Hall, Hope End and her tomb, and volume IV includes a facsimile of the manuscript of "May's Love." This edition contains a prefatory note by Robert Browning (1887), Elizabeth Browning's original dedication and preface to the first collected edition of her poems (1844) and both a general index and an index of first lines. Barnes E181.1.

Minimal rubbing to extremities; pages gently age-toned. A beautiful set.