First Book Edition of Idylls of the King by Tennyson

Tennyson's Idylls of the King

illustrated by Gustave Doré

"I was first of all the kings who drew
The knighthood-errant of this realm and all
The realms together under me, their Head,
In that fair order of my Table Round,
A glorious company, the flower of men,
To serve as model for the mighty world,
And be the fair beginning of a time."

Book IV, Idylls of the King

T.S. Eliot

"Tennyson is a great poet for reasons that are perfectly clear. He has three qualities which are seldom found together except in the greatest poets: abundance, variety, and complete competence."

"To me, Tennyson shows more than any poet I know how much there is in finest verbalism. There is such a latent charm in mere words, cunning collocutions, and in the voice ringing them, which he has caught and brought out, beyond all others."

Walt Whitman

Illustrated with 37 full-page steel engravings by Doré

(click on images to enlarge)

"I find in Doré's engravings a certain flavor of the days of Gavarni, and of Balzac and Victor Hugo--something of the now almost forgotten Boheme--for which I feel a deep respect, and which, every time I see them again, stimulates me to do my best and to attack things energetically."

--Vincent van Gogh

TENNYSON, Alfred. Idylls of the King. London: Edward Moxon & Co., 1868. Folio, contemporary full crimson pebbled morocco gilt, black and brown morocco inlaid gilt labels on upper panel, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt.

First edition in book form of the first four poems of Tennyson's version of the Arthurian classic, illustrated with 37 full-page steel engravings after drawings by Doré. Early owner signature on title page. With custom, velvet-lined, full burgundy straight-grain morocco box with lock and key. $3000.

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