BYRON, GEORGE GORDON NOEL, LORD | Manfred, A Dramatic Poem. London: John Murray, 1817

The Property of a Gentleman

BYRON, GEORGE GORDON NOEL, LORD

Manfred, A Dramatic Poem. London: John Murray, 1817

8vo (5 1/2 x 8 3/4 in.; 142 x 222 mm). Half-title, four pages of advertisements at end dated June 1817; one or two stray spots, minor offsetting. Original drab wrappers, small contemporary London bookseller’s label pasted to corner of upper wrapper; some chipping to foot of spine. In red cloth folding chemise case.

First edition, first issue, in original wrappers 

The first issue (with no quotation from Hamlet on the title page and the printer’s imprint on two lines on verso of title page) of this "closet drama." In keeping with the popular ghost stories of the period, Manfred contains supernatural elements, and is a stirring example of Gothic fiction. Byron set about drafting this work in 1816, only a few months after the famous ghost-story sessions with Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley, which gave birth to Frankenstein.

REFERENCES

Randolph 64-67; Wise I: 122-3

PROVENANCE

W.H. Robinson (described in his 1930 catalogue as "a superlatively fine copy") — Frank Brewer Bemis (purchased by Bemis from Robinson, catalogue 31; bookplate to front pastedown)