1869 Rare Vellum Book - The Princess: A Medley by Alfred Tennyson
Author: Alfred Tennyson.
Title: The Princess: A Medley.
Publisher: London, Strahan and Co., Publishers, 1869.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7" x 4".
Pages: 183 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good full vellum binding with gilt ruled borders to the boards, a dark green morocco title label lettered in gilt to the spine, marbled endpapers, and all edges tinted red. Binding remains sound and elegant, with light natural toning and minor soiling to the vellum, as usual, and a few small marks from age and handling. Spine label remains well preserved and attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content. Pages are clean, bright, and firmly bound, with light foxing mainly to the title page and adjacent preliminary leaves, as shown. With the attractive engraved bookplate of Cheswardine to the front pastedown, bearing a stylized monogram, botanical border, and the motto “Still Upward.” A handsome and well preserved copy.
Estimate: (USD 200–300).
The book: A beautiful 1869 edition of The Princess: A Medley by Alfred Tennyson, here presented in a very attractive small format full vellum binding with red tinted edges and richly marbled endpapers.
First published in 1847, The Princess is one of Tennyson's most distinctive long poems. Written as a poetic "medley," it blends romance, satire, social observation, and lyric beauty into a work that reflects both Victorian ideals and Victorian anxieties. At its centre is the question of women's education, treated through a playful but thoughtful narrative of a princess who founds a university for women and withdraws from the world of men.
The poem is also remembered for several of Tennyson's most famous lyrical interludes, including "Sweet and low, sweet and low," which appears in this volume. These songs helped give The Princess a lasting place in Victorian literature, even beyond the larger narrative structure of the poem.
This copy is especially appealing as an object, with its graceful vellum binding, gilt ruling, red edges, and decorative marbled endpapers giving it the quiet refinement of a fine nineteenth-century gift or library binding.
The author: Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892), later Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was one of the greatest poets of the Victorian age and served as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1850 until his death. His poetry is admired for its musical language, emotional depth, classical and medieval inspiration, and profound engagement with the spiritual and intellectual concerns of the nineteenth century.
Among his best known works are In Memoriam A.H.H., The Lady of Shalott, Maud, Idylls of the King, and The Princess. His verse helped define the literary voice of Victorian England and remains central to the English poetic tradition.