Large octavo, two volumes in one: pp. [1-4] [1] 2-236; [1-4] 237-482 [483: ads] [484: blank], nineteenth-century calf, marbled endpapers, edges marbled. First edition, large paper issue. "The first known published and single most important horror verse anthology in English. Volume one contains 32 poems by Matthew Lewis, Walter Scott, John Leyden, and others. Volume two contains 28 standard poems by Ben Johnson, Dryden, Burns, Glover, Mallet, Ransay, Dr. Harrington, and Gray. TALES OF WONDER was a decisive, if not always admitted, influence on the Romantics and is the seminal horror poetry volume in English. In its day the lavish, high-priced set was jeered at as 'Tales of Plunder' - alluding also to the sometimes careless 'translations' in volume one and the padding with commonplace ballads in volume two. Yet the very venom of the attacks - and of the scathing parodies - plus the many reprints and new editions, suggest that TALES OF WONDER was a vital, popular collection." - Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 6-32. "Although poetry may be the genre for which Lewis is now least remembered, he was a poet of some prominence in his day, eminent in the cult of the ballad and said to have influenced Scott, James Hogg, and others." - Bleiler (ed), Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror, p. 158. "Lewis's ballads are all imbued with a queer mixture of German and Scottish diablerie. They combine wild imagery with real pathos, linking the absurd with the wonderful, the horrific with the sublime . His poems are now almost forgotten, but prominent Romantics fell under his spell." - Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 264-6. Summers, A Gothic Bibliography, pp. 525-27; 529. Bleiler (1948), p. 181. NCBEL III 743. Contemporary signature of John Gamble at the upper edge of the title page. Leather quite worn, outer joints cracked, outer front hinge tender, a bit of mild scattered foxing but still very clean internally, a sound, good copy. (#173199). Seller Inventory # 173199

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Bibliographic Details

Title: TALES OF WONDER .

Publisher: Printed by W. Bulmer and Co. Cleveland-Row, London

Publication Date: 1801

Binding: Hardcover

Edition: 1st Edition

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