Item #2408100 The Village a Poem in Two Books. George CRABBE.

The Village a Poem in Two Books.

London: J. Dodsley, 1783.

Quarto, with half-title and final blank; in later drab boards.

First edition of Crabbe's best poem, an unsentimental homage to English country life. It was the work that confirmed his reputation and promise.

First edition of Crabbe's best poem, an unsentimental homage to English country life. It was the work that confirmed his reputation and promise.

Written in stirring heroic couplets, the poem was an implicit protest against the enclosure of common land by landowners. Mistakenly regarded as nothing more than a grim cataloguing of the ills of rural life, the opening to the second book is apropos:'No longer truth, though shown in verse, disdain,But own the village life a life of pain;I too must yield, that oft amid these woesAre gleams of transient mirth and hours of sweet repose'.

Condition Report: Text a little dusted, calf spine label defective but a good copy.

Price (AUD): $850.00

US$558.43   Other currencies

Ref: #2408100

Condition Report