"THE WAR AND PEACE OF ENGLISH POETRY": BYRON'S MASTERPIECE, DON JUAN, 1819-24, HANDSOME FIRST EDITION SET
BYRON. Don Juan. London: Thomas Davison [i.e., John Murray], 1819-21 (Cantos I-V, Volumes I-II); John Hunt (Cantos VI-XVI, Volumes III-VI), 1823-24. Six volumes bound in four. Quarto (Volume I) and octavo (Volumes II-IV), early 20th-century full tan polished calf rebacked with original elaborately gilt-decorated spines neatly laid down, raised bands, green morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $16,500.
Scarce first editions of Byron's great work—Cantos I-XVI complete in six volumes, with Volume I the scarce first issue, in quarto format—very handsomely bound in full calf-gilt by Francis Bedford.
"The War and Peace of English poetry, Don Juan contains… an epic sweep that moves from Spain, to the East, and to Russia before ending in England… At the same time that Byron's broad canvas foretells the scope of the great 19th-century novels, the poet's own sensibilities echo the picaresque 18th-century novels of his early reading, Smollett and Fielding, with their bawdy humor and sly inversions of vice and virtue. Unlike these prose narratives, however, Don Juan has no beginning, middle, or end. It draws us in, not to learn 'what happens next' but to hear what this seductive, confidential, teasing voice is going to tell us" (Eisler, 610). Byron planned to have his hero Juan tour Europe "with a proper mixture of siege, battle, and adventure, and make him finish… in the French Revolution… I meant to have made him a Cavalier Servente in Italy, and a cause for divorce in England, and a Sentimental 'Werther-faced man' in Germany, so as to show the different ridicules of the society in each of those countries, and to have displayed him gradually gâté and blasé as he grew older, as is natural. But I had not quite fixed whether to make him end in Hell, or in an unhappy marriage, not knowing which would be the severest. The Spanish tradition says Hell: but it is probably only an Allegory of the other state" (letter to John Murray, February 1821). When Cantos I through V appeared, they did so without the name of either author or publisher on the title page. Publisher John Murray refused to print Byron's dedicatory poem, which ridiculed English poet laureate Robert Southey, and Byron refused to put his name on a censored publication. Because of Byron's change from his long-standing publisher Murray to John Hunt (brother of writer Leigh Hunt) midway through Don Juan, complete first-edition copies with all cantos are scarce. "The first editions of the four volumes of the last 11 Cantos of Don Juan were… issued in three sizes: 'Large Paper' or demy octavo, 'Small Paper' or foolscap octavo, and the 'Common Edition' or 18mo" (Randolph). This set consists of 'Large Paper' first editions of Volumes II-VI (bound in three volumes, together with the 1819 "New Edition" of Cantos I-II in uniform octavo format, so Cantos I-II are duplicated in this set). Volumes I and II bound with scarce half titles; the remaining volumes were issued without half titles; bound with all publisher's advertisements. Volume I was published in an edition of 1500 copies, 150 of which were destroyed by the publisher after this volume was reprinted in octavo format; the 'large-paper' octavos were issued in editions of 1500 copies, with 'small-paper' octavos in editions of 2500-3000 and 15,000 or so in the common edition (Randolph). Randolph, 69, 74, 82-83, 86-87, 91. Wise II:3-8. Bookplate of noted lawyer and Conservative politician F.E. Smith, 1st Viscount Birkenhead. He was Solicitor-General in 1915, Attorney-General from 1915 to 1919, and Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain from 1919 to 1922. "Lord Byron" inked to half title of Volume I (not in Byron's hand).
Light foxing to Volume I (quarto volume) only; text in octavo volumes quite clean. Expert restoration to handsome calf bindings. A desirable full first edition set.