English Emblem Books.

Chatto and Windus 1967 . Hardback Second impression Blue cloth covers slightly rubbed at edges. Previous owner's book plate inside front cover. Text is clean and unmarked. Dustwrapper is a little grubby with a small nick at bottom of spine, now protected by a removeable clearview cover. Illustarted. The dustwrapper says"Emblem books, though little known nowadays, exerted a powerful influence on seventeenth-century literature. Composed of emblematic pictures and explanatory text, they had a definite sequence and intention: picture, interpretation and moral lesson. They first came to England from the Continent in 1586, and enjoyed a considerable vogue for about a century. In writing her book, . Miss Freeman's aim has been to examine the nature and history of Emblem books, and to analyse the influence of the emblem convention on English literature. The first half of the book is devoted to the relevant historical background and to a study of the method of the writers; the second is predominantly critical. Here the author substantiates her thesis that, although the products of the emblem writers were rarely in themselves of great permanent value, the convention in which they worked was of considerable literary importance; her application of this theory to the works of John Bunyan and George Herbert is particularly illuminating. Illustrated with 32 collotype plates reproduced from the original 'emblems'." 256 pages Wt 0.8 Kg Very Good (Good)