The Dream of Gerontius; Illustrated by Stella Langdale with an Introduction by Gordon Tidy
London and New York: John Lane / The Bodley Head, 1916. Tall octavo (9 1/4 inches tall), original pictorial green cloth, front board decorated in black-and-white, gilt spine, illustrated endpapers, top edge gilt, uncut. Faint wear and slight toning to spine, else Fine. Item #1870
"I AM NEAR TO DEATH, / AND THOU ART CALLING ME; I KNOW IT NOW"
First illustrated edition of The Dream of Gerontius—John Henry Newman’s last and greatest poem—partially unopened in the original pictorial binding designed by Stella Langdale. A bright, fresh copy in exceptional condition.
The Dream of Gerontius (derived from the Greek word for "old man") was first published in 1865 by the Jesuit magazine, The Month. Famously ambivalent about his longest poem, Newman was surprised by the warm reception for the first and second book editions of 1866. Reflecting the rising Victorian fascination with the supernatural and the afterlife, this meditation on the journey of the soul from life to death to Heaven illustrates Newman's embrace of a distinctive Catholic theology. "The Dream of Gerontius, widely praised by many people in England including some of Newman’s critics, touches on many of the obstacles to the Roman Catholic faith overcome by the Oxford don in his intellectual and spiritual pursuit of the truth" (Juan R. Velez, New Blackfriars).
Newman's "vision of a soul at the moment of death, and its conveyance by its guardian angel to the cleansing grace of Purgatory...is steeped in Catholic doctrine, itself something of a novelty in Victorian verse" (Joseph Pearce). Published fifty years after the first book edition, the text is prefaced with appreciations of Newman by Wilfrid Ward, Frederic Chapman, and Alexander Whyte. A lengthy historical Introduction by Gordon Tidy concludes with praise for Langdale (the "pictorial commentator"). "Let me now but say of her work that it has plainly behind it and beneath it a spirit to whose deep another deep has called." In addition to the binding, Langdale prepared a frontispiece and nine additional captioned plates. Langdale followed The Dream of Gerontius with an equally mystical rendering of Francis Thompson’s The Hound of Heaven (1922). See Blehl. John Henry Newman: A Bibliographical Catalogue of His Writings, A21; Joseph Pearce. Catholic Literary Giants: A Field Guide to the Catholic Literary Landscape.
Price: $250.00