McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader

American Book Company. hardcover. Good. 0x0x0. Rev. ed., 1879; 362 p., clean without written markings, except for former owner's caligraphic signature on front end page--some smudges on blank pages following; "Eclectic Educational Series" of the American Book Company; paper strong and only mildly age-toned; quite wonderful engravings; leather-bound spine with clear gilt lettering is slightly rubbed and crown and foot; boards quite faded and show bumping and rubbing of edges; although front gutter is cracked, volume is square. Includes page listing "Supplementary Readers for Advanced Classics." Some real suprises--in addition to expected selections from famous English (Shakespeare, Tennyson, Southey, Cowper,Hood, Goldsmith, Thackeray, Dickens and others celebrated in their day, such as Harriet Martineau) and American (Irving, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Whittier, Longfellow, Louisa May Alcott and many others) are articles from newspapers, an article by Audubon on the passenger pigeon, and even a translated eloge of the Russian peasant by Nikolai Karamzin.