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6th edition. Hard cover, 8vo., in full blue calf , the boards banded in gilt and blind with rolled neoclassical ornament, and the image of a finely detailed Celtic harp in blind to center of both boards. All edges gilt, board edges and turn-ins with gilt decoration, marbled endpapers, the spine with four raised bands, gilt title and decoration of Celtic harps to remaining compartments. Silk ribbon bookmark. 384 pp. Printed at Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, Printers.**CONDITION: Very Good Plus, with rubbing to front exterior joint in particular. Very light rubbing at corners showing through to boards. Gift Inscription in old ink to the ffep. dated Cranston Hill [Glasgow] 1831. Hinges in good order. Internally, the book is about Fine. **Much has been made of the rags-to-literary-fame of Scottish Romantic poet, journalist, critic and author James Hogg (1770-1835), nicknamed "The Ettrick Shepherd," because of his remarkable transformation from illiterate teenage sheep herder from a remote Scottish lowland village, to publishing phenom by the age of twenty-three. Self-taught, he did eventually enjoy the mentorship and advocacy of local literary luminary, Sir Walter Scott, author of the famous Waverley Novels. This title, "The Queen's Wake," is a lengthy dramatic poem about a poetry competition set over the course of several days by Mary Queen of Scots, as she returned to Scotland from banishment in France in 1561. The winner of the bardic competition won a harp, (illustrated in blind upon the covers of this book.) Following on the success of this title, Hogg would become a contributor to Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, especially represented in the Noctes Ambrosianae [See our listing of "The Complete Works of John Wilson of Edinburgh University," No. 8758 for excerpts.] Another novel he would become famous for was 1824's "The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner", a gothic novel concerning a man's descent into murder and madness. Watson 268.
Ref: POEMSC 8991
$225.00