Saracinesca (First Edition)
by Crawford, F. Marion
- Used
- Very Good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good
- Seller
-
Saint Louis, Missouri, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Macmillan and Co. , 1887. FIRST AMER. EDITION, first printing. Full red cloth with black & gilt ornamentation on the front and spine, gilt titles spine, blindstamped ornamentation back; Mild shelf wear, endpaper splitting at the front gutter, book is slightly cocked. 432pp. No previous owner's names, not exlibrary. Overall in VERY GOOD condition. Saracinesca is a novel by F. Marion Crawford, first published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine and then as a book in New York (Macmillan) and Edinburgh (Blackwood) in 1887. Set chiefly in Rome of twenty years earlier, the novel paints a rich picture of the period, detailing the spiritual and economic problems of the aristocracy at a time when its influence and status were under attack from the emerging forces of modernity. This romance tells the tale of Giovanni Saracinesca and his courting of Corona d'Astradente, complete with intrigue and sword fights (Crawford was an expert fencer). It can be categorized as a work of historical fiction in that it relates a time when the author was only a child, and also in the sense that the particulars of that time and place are carefully delineated. In a sense, Crawford had been researching for this book all his life: his parents had witnessed the brief 1848 revolution, and his cousin, in her memoirs of Crawford, insisted that "[t]here is little doubt that Crawford as a boy had heard first-hand descriptions of [the] exciting events" of the 1860s. Saracinesca proved to be both an immediate hit and Crawford's greatest critical success. It was also a commercial triumph: he negotiated separate contracts for the serial printing and the simultaneous American and British publication, as well as future royalties. He followed it with two brilliant sequels, Sant' Ilario and Don Orsino, the three of which are usually considered a trilogy. Subsequent sequels, such as Corleone, continue the saga of Saracinesca family, but with a diversion from the previous focus on the drama and status of family members into heavily plotted, incident-heavy melodrama. characters from Saracinesca and its sequels also appear in A Lady of Rome (1906) and The White Sister (1909). Crawford, though an American by parentage and citizenship, was born in the Italian resort of Bagni de Lucca, spent most of his adult life abroad, and wrote Saracinesca while living in Sorrento, Italy. . First American Edition. Full Cloth. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Hardcover.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Ziern-Hanon Galleries (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 016884
- Title
- Saracinesca (First Edition)
- Author
- Crawford, F. Marion
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Edition
- First American Edition
- Publisher
- Macmillan and Co.
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1887
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾" - 9&f
Terms of Sale
Ziern-Hanon Galleries
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About the Seller
Ziern-Hanon Galleries
Biblio member since 2010
Saint Louis, Missouri
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Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Gutter
- The inside margin of a book, connecting the pages to the joints near the binding.
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Cocked
- Refers to a state where the spine of a book is lightly "twisted" in such a way that the front and rear boards of a book do not...