The Sensitive Plant -
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charles Robinson (illustrator)
1911 - William Heinemann, London - First American Edition to be illustrated by Charles Robinson
The perfect marriage of Shelley’s exquisite masterpiece with Charles Robinson’s delicate illustrations. With an introduction by Edmond Gosse. A fine example in the original dust jacket.
‘For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower;
Radiance and odour are not its dower;
It loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full,
It desires what it has not, the Beautiful!
‘When Shelley wrote ‘The Sensitive Plant’ he was drawing very near the end of his poetry. It was one of the poems belonging to the days at Pisa, whither the Shelleys had gone late in the January of 1820. In the next winter — a winter of many painful associations for him, and many discouragements and reminders of evil fortune — he wrote this mysterious song of beauty and death. The idea of it appears to have come to him from the flowers which Mrs. Shelley had collected round her in her own room at the house they occupied on the south side of the Arno.‘ (from the 1899 edition). Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) is considered one of the finest lyric poets in the English language, though his work received little recognition until generations after his death, when he became an important influence on Victorian and pre-Raphaelite poets.
Charles Robinson (1870-1937) was a water colour painter, illustrator and decorator. He first came to notice in 1895 when his drawings were published in the influential magazine The Studio and he was asked to illustrate R.L. Stevenson's ‘A Child's Garden of Verses’. Charles Robinson and his brothers William Heath Robinson (1872-1944) and Thomas Heath Robinson (1869-1950), were among the most popular illustrators of the Edwardian period. Charles was elected President of the London Sketch Club, and in 1932 was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours (the RI). According to Simon Houfe, Robinson's illustrations had eclectic sources, and were 'partly inspired by the prints of Durer, partly by the Pre-Raphaelites, their space often suggestive of Japanese prints.' – Victoria and Albert Museum.
Reference: Simon Houfe, The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists 1800-1914, 435-6.
Quarto (book size 27x20.2cm), pp. [2] xiii [3] 17-128 [4]. In publisher’s green cloth intricately gilt decorated and lettered to spine and upper panel, endpapers with grey on white illustrations by Charles Robinson, top edge gilt, others trimmed. Brown thick paper dust jacket with matching illustrations to the endpapers, spine lettered in black, issued by J. B. Lippincott without price, as published. Condition: Fine but for one or two small blooms, in near fine dust jacket some wear to corners, small loss to head of spine and top corners. Ref: 112309 Price: HK$ 7,000
‘For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower;
Radiance and odour are not its dower;
It loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full,
It desires what it has not, the Beautiful!
‘When Shelley wrote ‘The Sensitive Plant’ he was drawing very near the end of his poetry. It was one of the poems belonging to the days at Pisa, whither the Shelleys had gone late in the January of 1820. In the next winter — a winter of many painful associations for him, and many discouragements and reminders of evil fortune — he wrote this mysterious song of beauty and death. The idea of it appears to have come to him from the flowers which Mrs. Shelley had collected round her in her own room at the house they occupied on the south side of the Arno.‘ (from the 1899 edition). Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) is considered one of the finest lyric poets in the English language, though his work received little recognition until generations after his death, when he became an important influence on Victorian and pre-Raphaelite poets.
Charles Robinson (1870-1937) was a water colour painter, illustrator and decorator. He first came to notice in 1895 when his drawings were published in the influential magazine The Studio and he was asked to illustrate R.L. Stevenson's ‘A Child's Garden of Verses’. Charles Robinson and his brothers William Heath Robinson (1872-1944) and Thomas Heath Robinson (1869-1950), were among the most popular illustrators of the Edwardian period. Charles was elected President of the London Sketch Club, and in 1932 was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours (the RI). According to Simon Houfe, Robinson's illustrations had eclectic sources, and were 'partly inspired by the prints of Durer, partly by the Pre-Raphaelites, their space often suggestive of Japanese prints.' – Victoria and Albert Museum.
Reference: Simon Houfe, The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists 1800-1914, 435-6.
Quarto (book size 27x20.2cm), pp. [2] xiii [3] 17-128 [4]. In publisher’s green cloth intricately gilt decorated and lettered to spine and upper panel, endpapers with grey on white illustrations by Charles Robinson, top edge gilt, others trimmed. Brown thick paper dust jacket with matching illustrations to the endpapers, spine lettered in black, issued by J. B. Lippincott without price, as published. Condition: Fine but for one or two small blooms, in near fine dust jacket some wear to corners, small loss to head of spine and top corners. Ref: 112309 Price: HK$ 7,000