The Marble Faun; or, The Romance of Monte Beni
Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1860. First Edition. Hardcover. First US edition, first printing, two volumes (complete), duodecimo size, 588 pp. Very good +. Item #25082701
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), who was born in Salem, Massachusetts, achieved literary fame with the publication of "The Scarlet Letter" (1850) which "was immediately hailed as a work of genius and America’s first major novel" (n.b., quote from the online American National Biography). He wrote many novels and short stories which are still read today, including "The Scarlet Letter", "Twice-Told Tales", "Tanglewood Tales", and "A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys".
This work, "The Marble Faun", was the fourth major novel written by Hawthorne, the first three being "The Scarlet Letter" (1850), "The House of the Seven Gables" (1851), and "The Blithedale Romance" (1852). His inspiration came while he and his family were living in Italy and "he saw the Faun of Praxiteles in the Palazzo Nuovo of the Capitoline Museum in Rome" (n.b., quote from Wiki). It has been described as a "dark romance", with elements of fable and gothic.
When published it was subject to mixed reviews; fans of the work included James Russell Lowell, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and William Dean Howells, who stated: "Everybody was reading it, and more or less bewailing its indefinite close, but yielding him that full honor and praise which a writer can hope for but once in his life" (n.b., quote from "Hathorne in Concord" by Philip McFarland).
___DESCRIPTION: Bound in full brown ribbed cloth over boards, blind-debossed ruled borders and decorations on both boards, blind ruled borders and gilt lettering on the spines, brown coated endpapers, publication date of 1860 on both title and copyright pages, Volume I with a 16-page section of publisher's ads at the back dated February of 1860; binding duodecimo size (7 1/4" by 4 3/4"), pagination: Vol. I, [i-v] vi-xi [xii-xv] 16-283, [5 blanks]; publisher's ads [1] 2-16; Vol. II, [i-vii] 8-284 .
___CONDITION: Both volumes better than very good, just about near fine; the boards clean other than a few light, stray marks, straight corners with minimal rubbing, strong, square text blocks with solid hinges, the interiors clean and bright, the sole prior owner marking we see being a name in a vintage hand written in ink on the flyleaf of Volume I; light wear to the heads and tails of the spines, else near fine.
___CITATION: Clark, A23.3.a, First American Edition, first printing, with required issue points including, in Volume I, (i) Preface before the Contents; (ii) p. ix signed "1*"; (iii) sixteen-page catalogue at the rear dated February, 1860; and in Volume II, (iv) p. 197 signed "4* ". Note that while some sources state that the work was published simulaneously in the US and in Britain, Clark does list it third, following the first two printings of the British publication.
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Price: $1,200.00