£795.00
Peacock (Thomas Love). The Genius of the Thames: A Lyrical Poem, in Two Parts. London: Printed for T. Hookham, Jun. and E. T. Hookham, No. 15, Old Bond Street; and Manners and Miller, Edinburgh, 1810. First edition.
First edition of one of Thomas Love Peacock’s earliest literary works, published while the author was still only twenty-four years old and before the novels and satires for which he would become celebrated.
A particularly appealing copy preserved in plain early boards with printed paper spine label and untrimmed edges, retaining the understated physical appearance of an early nineteenth-century book rather than having been subsequently rebound for a collector’s library.
The text opens with the Proœmium, followed by Peacock’s lyrical celebration of the Thames in two parts, drawing upon classical mythology, landscape, history and the literary associations of the river.
The boards are rubbed, marked and worn, with wear to the extremities and spine and deterioration to the paper label. The text block remains notably attractive, with broad margins and untrimmed edges.
In plain early boards with surviving printed paper spine label. Boards rubbed, stained and marked, with general surface wear and wear to corners and extremities. Spine worn and label considerably rubbed. Some separation/wear visible around the board and spine edges.
Internally substantially cleaner and more attractive than the exterior might suggest. Pages retain broad margins and untrimmed/deckled edges, with occasional spotting, marks and minor age-related blemishes. Small marginal defect visible to one photographed leaf, not affecting text.
An appealing copy in an unsophisticated early binding, retaining considerable original character.
Year: 1810
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: T. Hookham, Jun. and E. T. Hookham, London; Manners and Miller, Edinburgh
Before Thomas Love Peacock became the celebrated satirist behind Nightmare Abbey, and before his friendship with Percy Bysshe Shelley, there was the Thames.
In 1809, the young Peacock undertook a journey along the river, travelling through the landscape that would inspire The Genius of the Thames. The resulting poem appeared the following year, in 1810, making this one of the works of Peacock’s formative literary period.
Peacock transforms the Thames into something more than a geographical feature. Classical gods and spirits mingle with English landscape and history, presenting the river as a living thread running through the nation’s cultural imagination.
The book is particularly interesting when viewed against Peacock’s later career. His friendship with Shelley, his celebrated satirical novels and his mature reputation all still lay ahead. Here we encounter Peacock before Peacock became famous — a young writer experimenting with poetry, landscape, mythology and history.
This particular copy adds another dimension.
Unlike copies subsequently dressed in elaborate leather bindings, it survives in remarkably modest early boards, its pages retaining their irregular, untrimmed edges. It therefore gives the modern collector something close to the physical experience of an early nineteenth-century book as originally circulated.
This is a first edition of an early Thomas Love Peacock work, published in 1810 and preserved in an unusually evocative early state.
The principal attraction of this copy is not provenance — unlike the other ARB copy — but originality.
Its plain boards, surviving paper spine label and untrimmed text block retain considerably more evidence of the way books were originally produced and sold in the early nineteenth century.
For collectors of Romantic literature, Peacock is particularly interesting because of his close relationship with Percy Bysshe Shelley, while The Genius of the Thames predates that friendship and provides a window into Peacock’s development before his better-known satirical fiction.
It also creates an interesting opportunity within the ARB collection: two copies of the same 1810 first edition, each desirable for entirely different reasons — one for its exceptional Peacock-family association and decorative binding; this copy for its comparatively untouched early physical state.
