1842 Poetical Works of John Milton. Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, among others. William Turner illustrations

A handsome 1842 edition of John Milton's Poetical Works, illustrated after art by the venerable J.M.W. (William) Turner. This compilation includes Milton's classic works, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained.

About the Work -

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of all time. The poem concerns the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is to "justify the ways of God to men". The writer and critic Samuel Johnson wrote that Paradise Lost shows off "[Milton's] peculiar power to astonish" and that "[Milton] seems to have been well acquainted with his own genius, and to know what it was that Nature had bestowed upon him more bountifully than upon others: the power of displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggravating the dreadful."

Physical Attributes -

Measures 22 x 14 x 4.5 cm. Calf, with blind and gilt decoration. Five raised spine cords; six compartments with decorative gilt and the "Milton's Poetical Works". Gilt roll decoration on the turn-ins. All edges gilt (AEG). Pages - (2), frontis, cvi, 767, (2). Seven plates after Turner, one Frontis of Milton.

Condition -

See pictures. Wear to board edges, corners. Cloth front hinge not present. Pencil bookseller notes on front ednpapers. Endpapers have some foxing. Toning of first and last pages nearest endpapers. Some moisture marks at the front and rear in the margins; I think this was because the binding was oiled (a method of feeding leather in days gone-by) which wicked into the nearby pages from the turn-ins. Despite signs of age, a handsome and strong book.