[BYRON, LORD GEORGE]. The Works. With his Letters and Journals, and his Life, by Thomas Moore. London: John Murray, 1832-1833.
Hardcover. First complete edition. In seventeen volumes. Leather-bound. Small octavo [8°] (170 x 110 mm), pp. [xv], 359; 341; 376; 359; 376; 416; 319; [x], 328; [vii], 360; [xix], 316; [viii], 326; [vi], 324; [vi], 369; 360; [vi], 334; 335; [viii], 304. English text with some words and paragraphs in Hebrew and Greek. Finely bound in contemporary half calf, smooth spines gilt and blind decorated with centralised morocco lettering-piece, marbled boards, page edges, pastedowns and endpapers. With two fold-out facsimiles of letters, one plate, and each volume with a unique engraved frontispiece and engraved title-page with vignette, the engravings executed by William Finden (1787-1852). Front pastedown of each volume with nice armorial bookplate of Sir George Frederick Hodson. Footnotes, diagrams, appendices and indexes. Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, London. An attractive library set of Byron's works, complete with the three Don Juan volumes added to the edition, including all his poems and plays, letters and journals, and the Life by his friend Thomas Moore.
Condition: VERY GOOD. Collated complete, bindings tight and secure, all hinges perfectly preserved, a few extremities showing very minor rubbing, textblock excellent being largely fresh and clean with some limited intermittent foxing. An extremely attractive set with excellent shelf appeal.
Notes: This a fine, beautifully bound first edition of Byron's complete works, including his letters and journals, as well as the sympathetic biography written by his friend and literary executor Thomas Moore. DNB admires "the skill with which Moore constructed his portrait" and proclaims his biography "indispensable for students of Byron." (The memoir Byron had entrusted to Moore for publication after his death was determined to be too scandalous to see print and was burned in the presence of Lady Byron and others.) Day notes "the vigor and movement in Byron's letters, a compelling rhythmic prose that sweeps and punches. The man becomes blazingly alive in these incisive and driving letters." And of course, our set contains all of his ground-breaking poetry, the most famous in English after Shakespeare. As Day observed, "he gripped the soul of Western society as no other literary man ever has." John Murray paid £15,000 for the poet's copyrights, and Byron editions became a staple of the firm's output for a considerable number of years.
