Home / Browse / Literature & History / Poems and Ballads.
SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles.
Poems and Ballads.
First edition, rare first issue (with Moxon imprint), of the most sensationally controversial book of English poetry of its century, its contents a heady mix of sadomasochism, necrophilia, egalitarianism and blasphemy. "It was a dazzling collection. Swinburne had developed an original poetic voice, lyrical and possessed of an energy only matched in the period by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and written in a marvellous variety of stanza forms and metres … The book was learned and cosmopolitan in outlook. It established Swinburne as not only the leading new poet of the day but an international icon for progressive thinkers. In the late 1860s and 1870s Swinburne's very name seemed a trumpet blast for those who wanted a more liberal, less puritanical society" (ODNB). The first reviews, on 4 April, were hostile, and Moxon, frightened by rumours of imminent prosecution, withdrew the book from sale the very next day. The book was reissued by John Camden Hotton later in the year, and that is the issue usually met with.
Octavo (166 × 105 mm). Bound by Zaehnsdorf in pale tan polished calf, spine gilt in compartments, double green morocco labels, red morocco date label at foot, sides with two-line gilt rules, gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Bookplate. A little rubbing, one corner just knocked, short tear at foot of title skilfully closed, a good copy.
