Tennyson, Alfred Lord (1850-1892)

A Dream of Fair Women

Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1880. Engraved Under the Direction of A. V. S. Anthony. Decorated Cloth Hardcover.

Original brown cloth decorated in gilt, grey, and black, all edges gilt with beveled edges; tissue-guarded frontispiece of ‘Fair Rosamond’ by Mary Hallock Foote. 4to; 9 inches tall; 103 pages.  Illustrated with plates and in-text drawings by a host of late 19th century illustrators.

The bindings are tight and square, front hinge starting though still strong. Text clean, light even toning. Moderate shelf handling wear.

Very Good / No Dust Jacket As Issued. Item #17212

A Dream of Fair Women is a poem by Alfred Tennyson. It was written and published in 1833 as "A Legend of Fair Women", but was heavily revised for republication under its present tile in 1842. The opening lines of the poem are: As when a man, that sails in a balloon, Downlooking sees the solid shining ground.

Perhaps no poem proves more strikingly the scrupulous care which Tennyson took to improve what he thought susceptible of improvement.

The poem was inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women (1384). Both works feature Cleopatra and deal with the misfortunes of illustrious women. Samuel Beckett's 1932 Dream of Fair to Middling Women parodies Tennyson's title and alludes to his and Chaucer's poems. A 1920 American short film with this title directed by Wilfrid North credits Tennyson. The film features four winners of the Motion Picture Classic magazine's 1919 "Fame and Fortune" contest, which included Virginia Brown Faire.

Price: $125.00