THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS. (Including Materials Never Before Printed in Any Edition of the Poems.) Edited (with Textual Notes) by Thomas Hutchinson

First of the Edition. Portrait frontispiece of Shelley. 8vo, bound and signed by Riviere and Son in full polished mottled calf, the spine richly and elaborately designed gilt in panels within compartments separated by raised bands gilt stopped, lettered in gilt in one compartment, the covers with gilt roll tooling at the borders, all edges, turnovers and dentelles fully gilt decorated, marbled endleaves. xxiv, 912 pp. (with notes on the text and an index of first lines). A handsome copy, well preserved but for some light wear to the head of the spine panel and some wear to the joints.

Edizione: an important collection of the works. shelley remains one of the best known and loved romantic poets; his works such as queen mab, the revolt of islam and prometheus unbound have indisputably placed him amongst the greatest english poets. this handsome printing, in a fine antique binding, provides some of the greatest works of romantic poetry. shelley, along with lord byron, is considered the leading voice of the genre. throughout much of the late 19th century shelley had fallen somewhat into disfavor, and his fame was also overshadowed by one particular novel written by his wife. he was rediscovered and reappreciated however as the 20th century came into being. thus, this attractive 1904 printing is not without significance.<br> mr. hutchinson helped bring shelley into yet more modern times though he used to great degree, buxton-forman’s prodigious amount of work on the poet. as had been written--forman's goal was to lay before the public "as near an approximation as may be to the text that the poet intended to issue," a task which required forman to decide on what authority to base the final version of any given poem. as buxton-forman states in his preface, "in respect of books seen through the press by [shelley], there ought to be no difficulty whatever, except as regards isloated words and stops; but unfortunately he did not revise while at press one half of the entire bulk of his poetry, several of the volumes having been printed in england while he was abroad, and read through the press by friends. as regards the proportion of his mature works, from 'alastor' onwards, which had the advantage of his personal revision when in type, we should, i think, be making a liberal allowance if we assumed that he saw proofs of one third; and the largest of the volumes seen through the press by himself is infamously printed."