The Ring and The Book
Los Angeles: The Limited Editions Club, 1949. First Edition. Limited Edition of 1,500 numbered copies, of which this is number 1,157. Signed by the illustrator Carl Schultheiss on the limitation page. Two tall octavos, publisher's original quarter red leather over paper covered boards. Publisher's original black cloth slipcase. The Ring and the Book by Robert Browning is a dramatic narrative poem based on a real 17th-century Italian murder trial. Spanning more than 21,000 lines, it is Browning’s longest and most ambitious work, recounting the murder of Pompilia Comparini by her husband, Count Guido Franceschini, through a series of dramatic monologues. Each section presents a different character's perspective, including the accused, the victim, legal authorities, and the poet himself. Browning’s innovative structure offers profound psychological insight and moral complexity, as the same events are reinterpreted through conflicting voices and motives. Exploring themes of truth, justice, love, and the limits of human understanding, the poem stands as a landmark of Victorian literature and a remarkable achievement in dramatic verse. Some damage to the spines. Some fraying to the slipcase, else in good + condition. Item #107
Price: $50.00