MOORE, Thomas. Lalla Rookh, An Oriental Romance. Illustrated with Engravings from Drawings by Eminent Artists.

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1853. Octavo. pp. [xii], 392. Finely bound in full dark blue morocco by a skilled nineteenth-century binder, boards elaborately tooled in gilt and blind with an intricate geometric central panel highlighted in green, raised bands, title lettered in gilt on spine, all edges gilt. Contemporary presentation inscription dated March 16th, 1855 mounted to front endpaper, with later armorial bookplate. A handsome copy with occasional light spotting, the binding in excellent condition and the gilding remarkably bright.

Thomas Moore’s Lalla Rookh, first published in 1817, was among the most celebrated and commercially successful poems of the nineteenth century. Framed as the journey of an Indian princess travelling to meet her future husband, the work contains four interconnected narrative poems drawing upon Persian, Indian and wider Oriental themes. Richly descriptive and highly musical in style, it established Moore as one of the leading poets of the Romantic era and enjoyed extraordinary popularity throughout Britain, Ireland, Europe and America.

The present illustrated edition reflects the enduring Victorian fascination with Moore’s masterpiece. Lavishly produced and attractively bound, it exemplifies the gift-book tradition of the mid-nineteenth century, when Lalla Rookh was regarded as one of the great achievements of English-language poetry. The work exercised a profound influence upon artists, composers and designers, while its romantic vision of the East became one of the defining literary expressions of the age.

[L3 FSB 2B]