THE MARBLE FAUN; or The Romance of Monte Beni

2 volumes. First Edition, with Vol. I being Clark's printing four with sixteen page catalogue in the rear dated March and Vol. II being printing five and with the ad catalogue dated October. 8vo., publisher's original brown cloth lettered in gilt on spines and decorated in blind on the covers in the style of Ticknor format A, and with white wove endpapers coated brown. xi, 283, 16 ads; 288, 16 add pp. A very good set, quite near to fine for American books of this period. The textblock is solid and for the most part very clean, a small droplet has left an unobtrusive faint mark to the upper margin of the first 8 leaves of Vol. I, otherwise the volumes are quite clean and fresh, Vol. II especially so.

Edizione: a very early printing and in very nice condition.<br> italy was the site of this, one of hawthorne’s most popular books. of it, the writer said, “no author, without a trial, can conceive of the difficulty of writing a romance about a country where there is no shadow, no antiquity, no mystery, no picturesque and gloomy wrong, nor anything but a commonplace prosperity, in broad and simple daylight, as is happily the case with my dear native land. it will be very long, i trust, before romance-writers may find congenial and easily handled themes, either in the annals of our stalwart republic, or in any characteristic and probable events of our individual lives. romance and poetry, ivy, lichens, and wall-flowers need ruin to make them grow.”<br> john lothrop motley wrote to hawthorne that " i like those shadowy, weird, fantastic, hawthornesque shapes flitting through the golden gloom which is the atmosphere of the book. i like the misty way in which the story is indicated rather than revealed. the outlines are quite definite enough, from the beginning to the end, to those who have imagination enough to follow you in your airy flights; and to those who complain, i suppose nothing less than an illustrated edition with a large gallows on the last page, with donatello in the most pensive of attitudes, his ears revealed at last through a white nightcap, would be satisfactory." henry wadsworth longfellow called it a "wonderful book" and william dean howells wrote that it would ".[yield] him that full honor and praise which a writer can hope for but once in his life."