SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. The Masque of Anarchy. (1832 - FIRST EDITION)

AUTHOR: SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. 

TITLE: The Masque of Anarchy. Now First Published, with a Preface by Leigh Hunt.

PUBLISHER: London: Edward Moxon, 1832.

DESCRIPTION: FIRST EDITION. 1 vol., 12mo, 6-3/4" x 4-3/8", with the half-title and 2 page publisher's ad, complete, bound full red morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine, covers triple ruled in gilt, gilt dentelles, by Zaehnsdorf, and with their exhibition gilt stamp on the rear pastedown. Housed in a 1/4 red morocco backed clamshell slipcase, gilt lettered spine.

DESCRIPTION: Hinges rubbed but covers firm, internally clean and bright, A VERY GOOD COPY.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Engraved bookplate of "Edward Huth Wykehurst Park" (descendant of the great bibliophile Henry Huth). He was the last Huth to live at Wykehurst Park.

Written to denounce the state of things that occasioned the notorious 'Peterloo Massacre' at Manchester in 1819 for publication in The Examiner, but turned down by the editor, Leigh Hunt, "...because [he] thought that the public at large had not become sufficiently discerning to do justice to the sincerity and kind-heartedness of the spirit that walked in this flaming robe of verse."