"BRILLIANTLY EVOCATIVE DESCRIPTIVE PASSAGES"

KINGSLEY, Charles. The Life and Works. London: Macmillan, 1901-03. Nineteen volumes. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter dark brown crushed levant morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, others uncut. $2200.

Limited edition of the complete works of Kingsley, one of only 525 such sets printed, finely bound by MacDonald.

Includes Kingsley's historical novels (Hypatia, Westward Ho!, and Hereward the Wake), his social reform novels (Yeast, Alton Locke, and Two Years Ago), poems, and Letters and Memories of his Life (edited by his wife, in four volumes). Kingsley (1819-1875) "was a celebrated and revered figure, who gained towards the end of his life (as a professor of modern history at Cambridge…) a high degree of public and indeed royal approval… Kingsley's works are now read largely for their social interest and admired for their brilliantly evocative descriptive passages" (Drabble, 535-36).

A handsomely bound set in fine condition.