Ivanhoe by SCOTT, Sir Walter - 1820: A Romance. By "The Author of Waverley," &c. In Three Volumes.

Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable, 1820. First Edition, First Issue in Boards, Uncut [SCOTT, Sir Walter]. Ivanhoe; A Romance. By "The Author of Waverley," &c. In Three Volumes. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co. Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., London, 1820. First edition, first issue, with all points listed by Worthington with one exception. Points in Volume I: pagination ends on p. 298; the formemark on p. [iii] is 9; the first word on p. iv, line 6, is "Peter;" p. v, line 12, the second and fourth words are "which," not the third word as noted in Worthington, but the formemark is 6; p. vi, line 14, the first word is "observed;" p. ix, line 1, there is no comma after "fought;" p. xii, line 5, there is no comma after "people;" p. xv, line 3, word six is "toilsome;" p. xvi, line 20, the first word is "ton;" there are no formemarks on pp. xvi, xix, or xxiv; p. xxviii has formemark 9; p. xxx has formemark 12; and p. xxix has a comma after the word "paste" in the first line. Three octavo volumes (7 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches; 198 x 120 mm.). [6], xxxiii, [1, blank], 158, 151-298; [4], 327, [1, blank]; [4], 371, [1, blank], [3, ads], [1, blank] pp. Complete with half-titles. Uncut in the original quarter dark green roan over reddish-brown boards. Smooth spines ruled and lettered in gilt. A remarkably fine and totally unsophisticated copy. Individually chemised and housed together in a quarter dark green morocco book-back slipcase. "‘Ivanhoe,' which appeared at the end of 1819, marked a new departure. Scott was now drawing upon his reading instead of his personal experience, and the book has not the old merit of serious portraiture of real life. But its splendid audacity, its vivid presentation of mediæval life, and the dramatic vigour of the narrative, may atone for palpable anachronisms and melodramatic impossibilities. The story at once achieved the popularity which it has always enjoyed, and was more successful in England than any of the so-called ‘Scottish novels.' It was Scott's culminating success in a bookselling sense, and marked the highest point both of his literary and his social prosperity" (D.N.B.). Block, p. 209. Grolier, 100 English, 71. Todd and Bowden, Sir Walter Scott, 140Aa. Van Antwerp 9. Worthington 8. HBS 65268. $7,500.