"GRACEFUL, DELICATE, AND TENDER… WITH A PERFECTLY EXCEPTIONAL FACULTY OF PLAYING UPON WORDS"

HOOD, Thomas. The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood. London: Frederick Warne, circa 1870. Octavo, contemporary full tree calf gilt, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, green morocco spine label, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $450.

First edition, from the "Chandos Poets" series, illustrated with a frontispiece portrait and eight engraved plates, handsomely bound in contemporary tree calf.

"There were two sides to Hood's poetical character, either of which would have given him distinction; but his great and unique reputation rests upon the performances in which they appeared in combination. As a poet in the more conventional and restricted sense he was graceful, delicate, and tender" while "as a humorist he was exuberant and endowed with a perfectly exceptional faculty of playing upon words" (DNB). The publisher notes this is "a complete reprint of all his Poems out of Copyright to the present time, and contains considerably more than any other Non-copyright Edition yet published." Inked owner name on front flyleaf; inked purchase note on rear flyleaf.

Minor rubbing to binding. A handsome copy.