Hudibras Price: $90.00 Books by Netsifters
By Samuel Butler
With Notes and a Literary Memoir by the Reverend Tredway Russel Nash
Illustrated with Portraits, and Containing a New and Complete Index
1847
12 mo. (7 ins.) Highly ornate, brown, blind-stamped cloth boards with a three-toned cover illustration. (Golden, bronze and copper.) There is gilded lettering and detail on the spine. Published by D. Appleton Company, New York, in 1847 as a reprint. There are four black and white portraits, including the frontispiece; each with a protective leaf. Complete in one volume. There are 498 pages, including the index; plus, there are 2 pages of ads. The endpages are tan.
Condition: Very Good. The cover illustration and spine gilding is bright and clean The binding is tight and mostly square; there is a slight bow. There is bumping and rubbing; the top of the spine is chipped and has a small gouge. Near the top of the spine is a crack, exposing the backing beneath. The hinges, however, are fine; they show very little stress. The blind-stamped design is crisp, but a little worn. The top-edge of the pages are slightly darkened. The interior has light, scattered foxing. The pages are a little stiff, but pliable. (The paper is old-time, high quality.) The previous owner (a classics professor) signed and dated, in ink, the first free endpage. The endpage has, in pencil, a previous bookseller's marks.
Samuel Butler (1612 - 1680) was a British poet and satirist. His best-known work is undoubtedly Hudibras. It was originally published in three parts: in 1663, 1664, and 1678. Butler was an acerbic wit. He is epitomized in this cutting satire aimed at the Puritans. History remembers Hudibras as the quasi-heroic poem about a Presbyterian gentleman, loosely based Don Quixote, known as Sir Hudibras. Butler was ridiculing Puritans for their extremism, selfishness, bigotry, and hypocrisy. Many common expressions, such as "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" trace their roots to this poem. It has often been reprinted, but rarely in such an attractive binding as this. The author of the notes and memoirs, the Reverend Tredway Russel Nash, is still considered to be one of the best authorities on Butler.
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