1870 1stED Vellum Binding - Legend of King Arthur - The Holy Grail by Alfred Tennyson. Copy of Sir Arthur Hobhouse.
(Description)
Author: Lord Alfred Tennyson.
Title: The Holy Grail and other poems.
Publisher: London, Strahan and Co, Publishers, 1870. First Edition.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 6.5 " X 4 ".
Pages: 222 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good full vellum binding (hinges fine, overall slightly scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. All edges gilt
Content: Very good, near fine content (bright, tight, and clean, rare light foxing - as shown, book plate of Sir Arthur Hobhouse on the first endpaper - as shown ).
The book: Very beautiful and attractive First edition of The Holy Grail by Tennyson in a beautiful vellum binding!
In this book, the Idyll is told in flashback by Sir Percivale, who had become a monk and died one summer before the account, to his fellow monk Ambrosius. His pious sister had beheld the Grail and named Galahad her "knight of heaven", declaring that he, too, would behold it. One summer night in Arthur's absence, Galahad sits in the Siege Perilous. The hall is shaken with thunder, and a vision of the covered Grail passes the knights. Percivale swears that he will quest for it a year and a day, a vow echoed by all the knights. When Arthur returns, he hears the news with horror. Galahad, he says, will see the Grail, and perhaps Percivale and Lancelot also, but the other knights are better suited to physical service than spiritual. The Round Table disperses. Percivale travels through a surreal, allegorical landscape until he meets Galahad in a hermitage. They continue together until Percivale can no longer follow, and he watches Galahad depart to a heavenly city in a boat like a silver star. Percival sees the grail, far away, not as close or real an image as Galahad saw, above Galahad's head. After the period of questing, only a remnant of the Round Table returns to Camelot. Some tell stories of their quests. Gawain decided to give up and spent pleasant times relaxing with women, until they were all blown over by a great wind, and he figured it was time to go home. Lancelot found a great, winding staircase, and climbed it until he found a room which was hot as fire and very surreal, and saw a veiled version of the grail wrapped in samite, a heavy silk popular in the Middle Ages, which is mentioned several times throughout the Idylls. "The Holy Grail" is symbolic of the Round Table being broken apart, a key reason for the doom of Camelot.
The previous owner: Sir Arthur Lawrence Hobhouse (1886 - 1965) was a long-serving English local government Liberal politician, who is best remembered as the architect of the system of national parks of England and Wales. Son of prominent Liberal politician and MP Henry Hobhouse and the brother of peace activist, prison reformer, and religious writer Stephen Henry Hobhouse. Educated at Eton College, St Andrews University, and Trinity College, Cambridge. Lover of John Maynard Keynes and Duncan Grant. Hobhouse practiced as a solicitor until the outbreak of World War I, when he joined the British Expeditionary Force. Returning to civilian life, Hobhouse took to farming on a family estate Hadspen house and garden in Somerset.
The author: Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson FRS (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was a British poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets of all time.