Elegies and Epitaphs: A Comprehensive Review of the Origin, Design, and Character of Monumental Inscriptions and of other Necrological Literature... to which are Appended Fully 300 Epitaphs or Mottoes...
Gloucester: H. Osborne, 1892.
First Edition. Hardcover. Very good-. 9.75" x 7.5", pp x, 299, in original purple cloth decorated in gilt and black, with all edges gilt. Binding shows moderate wear and nibbling (especially on back cover) and is weakening a bit between pp 128 and 129, but is otherwise sound, text clean. The preface suggests that the the author finds the text of many modern epitaphs insufficiently literary, somber, or reverent (due to "the immense stretch of freedom exercised by the laity in matters for sepulture, coupled with the ignorance of the times") and offers his book as a remedy to this distasteful trend, providing mourners with a wide selection of appropriate texts to chose from.
Item #24589
Price: $175.00