lamdha books - Catalogue of books on the Pre-Raphaelites, Symbolists and Decadents

43235 Beaumont, Barbara (ed.) The Road of Decadence: From Brothel to Cloister Selected Letters of J.K. Huysmans. Ohio State University Press, Columbus, 1989. Hardcover, 273pp. Page edges lightly toned. Dustwrapper lightly worn at edges. Very good. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] Huysmans' letters form a sustained commentary on his artistic career and, taken as a whole, are an important documentary source for many aspects of French intellectual life, and the development of fin-de-siecle literature known as the Decadent period. Click here to order $24

32252 Delevoy, Robert L. Symbolists and Symbolism Skira; Macmillan, London, 1978. Hardcover square folio, 247pp., 83 colour and 228 monochrome illustrations. Foxed, spotted prelims; page edges slightly stained; boards solid and clean, with some wear, one superficial split to upper spine, few stains; dustwrapper clean and bright, few creases, fraying at corners. Overall very good in like dustwrapper. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] Symbolism was less a school than the atmosphere of the period. It is this atmosphere and the spirit of the artists who created it, from Vienna to London, that the Belgian art historian Robert L. Delevoy evokes in this comprehensive study of Symbolism. Aided by hundreds of fine reproductions of Symbolist paintings, watercolours and drawings, the author has succeeded in the difficult task of synthesising the overall significance of this far-reaching movement. Click here to order $120

56279 Eemans, Nestor Fernand Khnopff Le Ministere de L'Instruction Publique, Antwerp, 1950. Quarto hardcover, 15pp., and 24pp., illustrations in b&w and frontispiece in colour. Little foxing, wear; near fine in dustwrapper worn at edges; professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. The artist's name in written in pen on the spine section of the wrapper and a number to the top of the inner fold. Click here to order $25

36513 Jackson, Holbrook The Eighteen Nineties Capricorn Books, New York, 1966. Paperback, 304pp., b&w illustrations. Owner's name on endpaper. Cover slightly worn and discoloured with wear along edges and corners. Good. Written not long after the "Yellow Nineties", this book remained the best and most readable survey of the British literary and artistic movements that flourished in the last decade of the nineteenth century. It moves from a general survey of the period, its movements and leading figures, to specific discussions of the more notable examples - from Decadence, Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley to William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Click here to order $9

41131 Lang, Mrs A., Armstrong, Walter, Zimmern, Helen, and Robinson, Lionel. The Life and Work of Sir F. Leighton, Sir J.E. Millais, L. Alma Tadema and J.L. Meissonier The Art Annuals. Art Journal Office, London, 1887. Folio. Bound issues. Foxed prelims, moderate wear. Tenderness to front hinge, split rear finge. As is. Engravings. Contemporary biographical and critical writings on artists with strong Royal Academy of Art pedigrees, two of whom, Leighton and Millais, were also associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Click here to order $80

59691 Lucie-Smith, Edward Symbolist Art Thames & Hudson, London, 1977. Paperback, 216pp., 185 illustrations, 24 in colour. Owner's name on half-title page. Page edges lightly toned and spotted; prelims spotted. Illustrated cover slightly shelf worn; edges and corners slightly worn. Very good otherwise. Click here to order $13

34537 Moreau, Gustave Magic and Symbols Abrams, New York, 1999. Remainder, new. Small format paperback, 127pp., colour and b/w illustrations. Uniting a passion for mysticism and mythology with an exquisite craftsmanship, Moreau's complex and decorative style inspired a generation of Symbolist painters, poets and writers. This book explores his life and artistic sources with a wealth of documents, letters and photographs and more than 120 paintings, drawings and watercolours. Click here to order $8

43510 Morris, WIlliam The Defence of Guenevere and other poems John Lane, London, 1904. Hardcover, 310pp., b&w engravings. Inscription on endpaper. Endpapers and page edges toned and spotted. Red cloth boards with gilt title and decoration on spine and front and rear covers; fading to lower front corner and upper rear corner; scuffing to lower edges and rear spine hinge; bumped corners with some fraying; spine sunned with head and tail bent. No dustwrapper as issued. Very good. Medieval by aspiration, Morris' treatment poetic and artistic of the Romance subjects of Guenevere, Arthur and Galahad, as well as divers knights and fair ladies. Click here to order $750

52383 Pierre, Jose Symbolism Eyre Methuen, London, 1979. Softcover, small 8vo, 89pp., b&w and colour illustrations. Endpapers and page edges lightly toned and spotted. Wrapper lightly worn at edges. Very good. Click here to order $10

7603 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (Jan Marsh, ed.) Collected Writings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti JM Dent, London, 1999. Hardcover, large 8vo, 531pp. Page edges lightly toned, with mark on fore edges. Dustwrapper lightly worn at edges. Very good. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] Leading light of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Rossetti produced original verse and an acclaimed translation of Dante as well as his drawings and paintings. Bringing together everything published in his lifetime, from romantic ballads of betrayal and revenge through intricately wrought love sonnets to boldly erotic odes. There are simple lyrics, dramatic monologues, historical narratives and several poems written for pictures, painted by Rossetti himself and other painters. Also included are the early Pre-Raphaelite tale Hand and Soul, his critical defence of his 'fleshly' poems, as well as his Italian translations. Entering the world of Pre-Raphaelite poetry, this work studies the interaction between verbal and visual art and assesses Rossetti's place in the canon of Victorian literature. Click here to order $25

14823 Rossetti, William Michael The Pre-Raphaelites & Their World: Folio Society edition A Personal View. (From Some Reminiscences and other writings of William Michael Rossetti) Folio Society, London, 1995. Hardcover, quarto, 234pp., colour & b&w illustrations. Illustrated cloth boards; fine in llightly stained and marked slip-case. "Genuine feeling and candour mark the tone of William Michael's autobiographical documents, as he rejects the temptations of more colourful autobiographers. Here is a rich eyewitness testimony of appealing, varied texture, blending memoirs, biography and autobiography, poetry and reviews, letters, opinion and detailed art criticism." Click here to order $34

32209 Shrewsbury, H.W. Brothers in Art Studies in William Holman-Hunt and John Everett Millais. Epworth Press, London, 1920. Hardcover, 197pp., 21 photogravure illustrations. First edition. Inscriptions to endpaper. Foxed, spotted page edges throughout; boards rubbed at edges, corners and spine ends bumped, but solid and clean; dustwrapper heavily creased, numerous chips, section missing from spine panel. Fair in like dustwrapper. [Hardcovers with dustwrappers are professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film, where appropriate.] The story of two artists whose friendship resulted in a new departure in the history of British Art, and whose work influenced their contemporaries and artists of subsequent generations. This work traces the evolution of some of their most famous paintings and in pairing their pictures provides a keynote interpretation, whether of affinity or contrast of thought. Click here to order $12

52355 Swinburne, Algernon Charles Laus Veneris The Golden Cockerel Press, London, 1948. No. 306/750 copies, 28 pp. Light foxing. Water and mildew stains to lower edge of boards and page edges, not however impinging on text, top edges of pages gilt, water staining to lower portion of cloth spine. Quite a good copy otherwise and very sound. Click here to order $100

58887 Wilson, Michael Nature and Imagination The Work of Odilon Redon E P Dutton, New York, 1978. Quarto hardcover, 78pp., 70 illustrations, 30 in colour. Binding slightly rolled. Lightly spotted endpaper. Illustrated dustwrapper rubbed at upper edges and corners with scrape from removal of sticker to front panel. Minor wear. Otherwise very good. Odilon Redon spent the first part of his life as a little known painter and lithographer, working in a sinister, macabre vein very different from his contemporaries, the French Impressionists. In 1884 he suddenly came to wider notice with the publication of Huysmans' A Rebours, in which his drawings were described as ' the most fantastic of visions' plunging deep 'into the horrific realms of bad dreams and fevered visions'. He was immediately taken up by the Decadents and the Symbolists, and his career flouished. Their approval really stemmed from a misunderstanding of his aims. He felt that his work should not need the literary interpretation of intellecturals but should stand on its own as a visual experience. In this introduction to Redon's work, the illustrations and text have been thoughtfully put together to give a fuller appreciation of a complicated artist. Click here to order $20