SITWELL, Edith. Victoria of England. London: Faber & Faber. 1936. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s cherry red cloth lettered in red and gilt to the spine, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed, in the excellent wraparound dust jacket unmistakably designed by Barnett Freedman, and with a lovely illustrated vignette at the title page. With all sixteen plates present. A near fine copy, the cloth clean and very bright, the binding tight and square. The contents just slightly spotted to the endpapers, else fine throughout. The dust jacket unclipped (15s net), complete, with small sticker remnant to the spine foot. Very slightly nicked in places, but a pleasing, well-preserved example.
The first impression of Edith Sitwell’s highly praised narrative of the Queen’s personal history, ‘from the fantastic circumstances of the little Princess’s childhood to the great little old lady’s last drive’, with chapters on Victoria’s thoughts on British social conditions, fashion, politics, the Arts ,and more. Important and unusual, of course, for one woman to author a book on another, which the publishers co-opt—’it takes a woman to understand a queen’, the front flap reads, and Sitwell ‘adds an intuitive understanding beyond the reach of a male biographer’. With Freedman’s design, a wraparound as per his usual style, the volume is scarce.
SITWELL, Edith. Victoria of England. London: Faber & Faber. 1936. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s cherry red cloth lettered in red and gilt to the spine, top edge gilt, other edges untrimmed, in the excellent wraparound dust jacket unmistakably designed by Barnett Freedman, and with a lovely illustrated vignette at the title page. With all sixteen plates present. A near fine copy, the cloth clean and very bright, the binding tight and square. The contents just slightly spotted to the endpapers, else fine throughout. The dust jacket unclipped (15s net), complete, with small sticker remnant to the spine foot. Very slightly nicked in places, but a pleasing, well-preserved example.
The first impression of Edith Sitwell’s highly praised narrative of the Queen’s personal history, ‘from the fantastic circumstances of the little Princess’s childhood to the great little old lady’s last drive’, with chapters on Victoria’s thoughts on British social conditions, fashion, politics, the Arts ,and more. Important and unusual, of course, for one woman to author a book on another, which the publishers co-opt—’it takes a woman to understand a queen’, the front flap reads, and Sitwell ‘adds an intuitive understanding beyond the reach of a male biographer’. With Freedman’s design, a wraparound as per his usual style, the volume is scarce.
