Lorna Doone. A Romance of Exmoor. Illustrated Edition. In Two Volumes. Vol. I. [II] de Blackmore, R. D. (Richard Doddridge), 1825-1900. Merrill, Frank T., illustrator

NY, Thomas Y. Crowell [c1893]. Hard Cover. Two volumes in one: vii, 295; iv, 296 p., 18 plates incl. engr. front. & author's engr. portrait on added t.-p. "Drawings by Frank T. Merrill. Engraved by John Andrew & Son." "This work is called a 'romance', because the incidents, characters, time, and scenery are alike romantic. And in shaping this old tale, the Writer neither dares, nor desires, to claim for it the dignity, or cumber it with the difficulty of an historic novel. And yet he thinks that the outlines are filled in more carefully, and the situations (however simple) more warmly colored and quickened, than a reader would expect to find in what is called a 'legend'. And he knows that any son of Exmoor, chancing on this volume, cannot fail to bring to mind the nurse-tales of his childhood-- the savage deeds of the outlaw Doones in the depth of Bagworthy Forest, the beauty of the hapless maid brought up in the midst of them, the plain John Ridd's Herculean power, and (memory's too congenial food) the exploits of Tom Faggus." First published 1869. Bound in black cloth stamped in gold, top edge gilt; 'plain brown wrapper' dj printed in green, chipped & torn but has protected the covers nicely; VG+. Stock#29313 (dr).