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[THE NONESUCH PRESS]. SHAKESPEARE, William.
The
Works of Shakespeare. The text of the First Folio with Quarto variants and
a selection of modern readings: edited by Herbert Farjeon.
New York: Random House, 1929-1933.
Seven octavo volumes (24.3 x 16.5 cm). This set no. 79, one of 550 for the
United States of the full limitation of 1,600 sets. Designed by Francis Meynell
and printed by Walter Lewis, Printer to the University, at the Cambridge University
Press in Monotype Fournier, with new capital letters made for this edition,
on Pannekoek mould-made laid paper. Bound in London by A.W. Bain in publisher's
full gilt tan niger morocco, spines in six compartments, top edges colored
pale pink and gilt on the rough, other edges uncut. Overall negligible rubbing
to extremities, mild darkening of spines, slight offsetting of dentelles onto
blank endpapers (all as inevitably found), else a uniformly fine set.
"The text is printed litteratim from the First Folio, except in the
case of Pericles and the poems which were not included in the Folio and hence
are reprinted from the Quartos…. The Shakespeare represents the chef d'œuvre
of the Nonesuch Press, and is a model of careful proof reading and imaginative
setting. The best of ancient and modern conjectural emendations are unobtrusively
set in the margin for the benefit of a glancing eye. This is the finest of
all editions of our greatest poet." (Meynell, The Nonesuch Century,
p. 69.) "We turn over to the Nonesuch Shakespeare. There you have created
a most marvellous pleasure…. It satisfies. It is final, like the Kelmscott
Chaucer or the Ashendene Virgil. And it is a book which charms one to read
slowly, an art which is almost gone from us in these times. Every word which
Shakespeare uses stands out glowing. A really great edition." (T.E. Lawrence,
letter to David Garnett, quoted in The Nonesuch Century, p. 47). Dreyfus 58.
Ransom, Private Presses, p. 169. The Nonesuch Century, 58.
Price: SOLD
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