LORD BYRON 1819 Rare VAMPIRE STORY & POEMS in FINE BINDING of HENRY YOUNG & SONS

Description: FOUR WORKS by LORD BYRON bound in this single FINE BINDING volume. Each work includes its half-title page, title page, complete text, and colophon at the end; each is numbered separately as issued. The four bound-in works are: BEPPO, A Venetian Story. London, John Murray, Fifth Edition, 1818. 52 pages. * MAZEPPA (including "A FRAGMENT"), London, John Murray, 1819 [First Edition, second state]. 69 pages. * POEMS OF LORD BYRON on his Own Domestic Circumstances. London, Effingham Wilson, Second Edition, 1816. 34 pages. * A POETICAL EPISTLE. London, John Miller, 1816. 15 pages. Bound in at the end of MAZEPPA is the rare Lord Byron unfinished VAMPIRE story "A FRAGMENT". FINE BINDING by HENRY YOUNG & SONS, LIVERPOOL, circa early 1900s. "Signed" by the bookbinder at the top edge of the verso of the front free-endpaper. Hardcovers, 3/4 CALF LEATHER with SIMULATED BIRCH-COVERED BOARDS, spine decorated in gilt, five raised spine bands, leather title label in the second spine compartment, gilt top page edges, SIMULATED BIRCH ENDPAPERS, 6x9 inches (15x21 cm), 170 total pages (each work paginated separately). HENRY YOUNG & SONS was a Bookseller, Publisher and Bookbinder in Liverpool, established in 1847 as Henry Young and in 1887 became Henry Young & Sons. GOOD condition, the covers are rubbed at the folds and edges, have some wear at the spine ends and corner tips, and the faux birchwood covered boards have some shelf rubs, but overall the covers are solid and quite lovely. Internally, there is a previous owner's signature on a blank prelim "(?) Moore" and a different previous owner's signature on the first page of two of the bound-in works "H. Brooke"; the bound in work "POEMS" is foxed and has soiling and creases but is still clear and solid; the other three bound-in works are bright, clean, clear and unmarked, with just a bit of foxing here and there. A solid, very presentable copy. SCARCE with BYRON'S 1819 First Edition / Second State "A FRAGMENT" and the unusual FINE BINDING by Henry Young & Sons. NOTES: MAZEPPA is the first edition, second state, with the colophon moved from page [70] to the verso of page 71 (the page of ads). Byron's early Vampire story "A FRAGMENT" (pages 57 to 69) was included by the Publisher John Murray without Byron's consent. "A Fragment" was written during the celebrated week at Geneva in 1816, during which Polidori conceived "The Vampyre" and Mary Shelley conceived her classic Frankenstein. About A FRAGMENT (from Wikipedia): ******"A Fragment" is an unfinished 1819 vampire horror story written by Lord Byron. The story, also known as "A Fragment of A Novel" and "The Burial: A Fragment", was one of the first in English to feature a vampire theme. The main character was Augustus Darvell. John William Polidori based his novella The Vampyre (1819), originally attributed in print to Lord Byron, on the Byron fragment. The story "A FRAGMENT" is important in the development and evolution of the vampire story in English literature as ONE OF THE FIRST TO FEATURE THE MODERN VAMPIRE AS ABLE TO FUNCTION IN SOCIETY IN DISGUISE. The short story first appeared under the title "A Fragment" in the 1819 collection MAZEPPA: A Poem published by John Murray in London. Byron's unfinished "A Fragment" was appended to Mazeppa by the publisher John Murray in June 1819 in London without the approval of Byron. On 20 March 1820, Byron wrote to Murray: "I shall not allow you to play the tricks you did last year with the prose you post-scribed to 'Mazeppa,' which I sent to you not to be published...and there you tacked it, without a word of explanation, and be damned to you." The vampire fragment was a product of the ghost story contest that occurred in Geneva on 17 June 1816, when Byron stayed at the Villa Diodati with author and physician John William Polidori. Their guests were Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin (soon to be Mary Shelley), and Claire Clairmont. Mary recalled the contest and Byron's contribution in the 1831 introduction to Frankenstein: 'We will each write a ghost story,' said Lord Byron; and his proposition was acceded to. There were four of us. The noble author began a tale, a fragment of which WAS printed at the end of his poem of Mazeppa." In the 1818 preface to Frankenstein, Percy Bysshe Shelley described the contest with Lord Byron and John Polidori: "Two other friends (a tale from the pen of one of whom would be far more acceptable to the public than anything I can ever hope to produce) and myself agreed to write each a story, founded on some supernatural occurrence."******

Price: 800 USD

Location: Napa, California

End Time: 2025-01-08T22:37:27.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5.38 USD