CRABBE, George (1754--1832)
Tales. By the Rev. George Crabbe, LL.B.
London: printed for J. Hatchard, bookseller to Her Majesty, 1812.
xxii, [2], 398, [2] p. ; 20.9cm. (8º)

First edition of twenty-one self-contained verse tales by the clergyman and poet George Crabbe whose popularity with his contemporaries declined with changing literary fashions and is now chiefly remembered for his verse letter cycle The borough, 1810 (1820 ed., q.v.), from which Benjamin Britten was to draw the plot of Peter Grimes. With a final leaf of publisher's advertisements (2C8).

Copy Notes Imperfect; wanting half-title and Hatchard's advertisements at the end.

Binding Later C19th green half calf, scallop and rose blind roll-tooled borders, green morocco-grain cloth boards, gilt double-ruled spine with volute ornaments, two red morocco spine-labels. Bound uniformly with four other volumes of works by Crabbe (qq.v.) by George Richmond for 15s., 20 May 1853. (Curatorial Papers/Bailey/Parcel 1).

Reference Number 2006