Beschreibung:

Tennyson, Alfred Lord THE LOVER'S TALE. LONDON: EDWARD MOXON, 1833. 8vo (165 x 100 mm). Contemporary calf, rebacked, spine gilt. First edition. One of the great rarities of 19th-century English literature. Tennyson wrote this poem in 1828, when he was in 19. In 1832 the text was set in type, along with the thirty other pieces which eventually formed his Poems of 1833; at the last minute, however, Tennyson decided that the poem was in need of substantial revision, and it was therefore held back for publication at some future date. Before the types were distributed, a few copies were printed at Tennyson's expense. Wise quotes a letter from Arthur Hallam to a friend in Italy saying that six copies only were produced, which Tennyson had sent to Hallam for distribution to friends; the original of this letter appears to have vanished, and it now seems probable that a few further copies were retained by Tennyson himself. The total printing, in any case, can have been no more than 10 or 12 copies at most. At present, only 6 others are known, all in institutions. The present copy, now the seventh copy known, was acquired from descendants of Arthur Hallam's sister Julia Hallam, who married Sir John Lennard of Wickham Court, Kent, and lived until 1888; the book later belonged to her daughter Eleanor Lennard (d. 1933), and her granddaughter Lady Lennard. The family possesses no further copies, and it is therefore probable that this is the copy retained by Arthur Hallam for his own use, though there are no markings in it of any kind. a true Tennyson rarity with significant provenance.