THE INVASION OF THE CRIMEA: Its Origin, and an Account of Its Progress Down to the Death of Lord Raglan.

8 volumes. First Edition of each of the eight volumes. With a profusion of maps and plans throughout. 8vo, handsomely bound in three-quarter red calf over red cloth covered boards, the spines with raised bands, central gilt ornamental tooling in the compartments, two compartments lettered in gilt, gilt rules to the joins, marbled endleaves, top edges gilt, with the signification of the old Bournemouth bookseller of the late 1800's Horace G. Commin. A handsome set, well preserved, the text-blocks and illustrated portions all in very pleasing condition, the bindings with very little evidence of wear, hinges all strong and the bindings tight and sound. A COMPLETE SET OF THE FIRST EDITIONS OF THIS HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT AND WELL RESPECTED WORK. PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL WRITINGS ON THE CRIMEA. Alexander William Kinglake was an English travel writer and historian. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge., was called to the Bar in 1837, and built up a thriving legal practice, which, in 1856, he abandoned to devote himself to literature and public life. His magnum opus was this great work--The Invasion of Crimea: Its Origin, and an Account of its Progress down to the Death of Lord Raglan, in 8 volumes, published from 1863 to 1887 by Blackwood, Edinburgh, one of the most effective works of its class. The History, which Geoffrey Bocca describes as a book "by which no intelligent man can fail immediately to be fascinated, no matter to what page he might open it" is presented here. Kinglake's subject is the Crimean War of the mid-nineteenth century which was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 in which Russia lost to an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. The immediate cause of the war involved the rights of Christian minorities in Palestine (then part of the Ottoman Empire) with the French promoting the rights of Roman Catholics, and Russia promoting those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the expansion of the Russian Empire in the preceding Russo-Turkish Wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe. The churches worked out their differences with the Ottomans and came to an agreement, but both the French Emperor Napoleon III and the Russian Tsar Nicholas I refused to back down. Nicholas issued an ultimatum that demanded the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman Empire be placed under his protection. Britain attempted to mediate and arranged a compromise to which Nicholas agreed. When the Ottomans demanded changes to the agreement, Nicholas recanted and prepared for war. The Crimean War was one of the first conflicts in which military forces used modern technologies such as explosive naval shells, railways and telegraphs, and it was one of the first to be documented extensively in written reports and in photographs. The war quickly became a symbol of logistical, medical and tactical failures and of mismanagement. The reaction in Britain led to a demand for the professionalizing of medicine, most famously achieved by Florence Nightingale, who gained worldwide attention for pioneering modern nursing while she treated the wounded. The war also marked a turning point for the Russian Empire. The war weakened the Imperial Russian Army, drained the treasury and undermined Russia's influence in Europe. The empire would take decades to recover. Russia's humiliation forced its educated elites to identify its problems and to recognize the need for fundamental reforms. They saw rapid modernization as the sole way to recover the empire's status as a European power. The war thus became a catalyst for reforms of Russia's social institutions, including the abolition of serfdom and overhauls in the justice system, local self-government, education and military service. As the Ottoman Empire steadily weakened during the 19th century.…