1923 Rare Edition - THE LIGHT OF ASIA or The Great Renunciation. Being The Life and Teaching of Gautama Prince of India and Funder of Buddhism.

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Author: Sir Edwin Arnold. (Photogravures from photos by Lady Eardley-Wilmot)
Title: THE LIGHT OF ASIA or The Great Renunciation. Being The Life and Teaching of Gautama Prince of India and Funder of Buddhism.
Publisher: London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner &c, 1923.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 5.5 " X 4 ".
Pages: xiv-157 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good original burgundy full morocco leather binding (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. Upper edge gilt.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing or staining - as shown).
Illustrations: Nicely illustrated with twelve photogravures from photos by Lady Eardley-Wilmot.

The book: Attractive, illustrated edition of The Light of Asia, or The Great Renunciation (Mahâbhinishkramana), -- a book by Sir Edwin Arnold. The first edition of the book was published in London in July 1879. In the form of a narrative poem, the book endeavours to describe the life and time of Prince Gautama Buddha, who, after attaining enlightenment, became the Buddha, The Awakened One. The book presents his life, character, and philosophy in a series of verses. It is a free adaptation of the Lalitavistara.
A few decades before the book's publication, very little was known outside Asia about the Buddha and Buddhism. Arnold's book was one of the first successful efforts to popularize Buddhism for a Western readership. After receiving the poem from theosophists, Mahatma Gandhi was awed and his subsequent introduction to Madame Blavatsky and her Key to Theosophy inspired him to study his own religion.
The book has been highly acclaimed from the time it was first published and has been the subject of several reviews. It has been translated into over thirty languages, including Hindi.

The author: Sir Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI (10 June 1832 – 24 March 1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work The Light of Asia.