Beerbohm, Max

Zuleika Dobson; Or An Oxford Love Story

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New Haven Yale University Press 1985 First Edition Thus Introduction by N. John Hall. With eighty illustrations by the author. 8vo. Finely bound by the Bayntun-Riviere bindery in full dark green morocco, spine lettered in gilt with decorative centres, Japanese paper endleaves, all edges gilt. This edition of Zuleika Dobson is a facsimile of the author's own copy of the first edition, reproducing all his watercolour illustrations in the exact size and positions of the original. In his introduction Hall writes that the novel now belongs in the select company of great illustrated English novels. "The drawings, like the writing itself, are graceful, fanciful, unsentimental, elegant, and satiric...They are precise visual embodiments of Max's prose." Beerbohm was the pre-eminent caricaturist of his age, but he always professed a dislike of illustrated fiction. He once wrote "If I cannot see the characters in a novel, then they are not worth seeing. If I can see them, then any other man's definite presentment of them seems to be an act of impertinence to myself and of impiety to the author." When he came to publish Zuleika Dobson he had a clause written into the contract stipulating that no illustrated edition could ever be printed without his consent. During the two months following the book's publication in October 1911 Beerbohm profusely and meticulously illustrated his copy, but would only ever show his work to friends and family. Fortunately, a wider audience is now able to enjoy these witty and charming drawings. Amplifying and commenting on the text, they add a new dimension to the novel and provide a unique insight into the author's imagination.

• GBP 495.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: 2893

• bookseller: George Bayntun (GREAT BRITAIN)