Lot 105
Published by London, John Ollivier, 1844, First Edition. 418 pp. With folding lithographed frontispiece and a lithographed plate, both in original hand colour. First edition of this classic of Middle Eastern travel literature, published anonymously. The first literary venture by the English travel writer and historian Kingslake, in which he described a journey he made about ten years earlier in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, together with his Eton contemporary Lord Pollington. According to the Irish traveller and novelist Elliot Warburton, the book evoked "the East itself in vital actual reality", and it was instantly successful. - Packed with intimate details of a traveller's life and emotions, the narrative includes vivid accounts of Kinglake's encounter with Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839), one of the most famous travellers of her age, at her home near Sidon in Lebanon, as well as of a severe outbreak of the plague during his 15-day sojourn in Cairo: "When I first arrived, it was said that the daily number of 'accidents' by the plague, out of a population of about 200,000, did not exceed four or five hundred, but before I went away, the deaths were reckoned at twelve hundred a day [.] When first I arrived at Cairo, the funerals that daily passed under my windows were many, but still there were frequent, and long intervals without a single howl. Every day, however [.] these intervals became less frequent, and shorter, and at last, the passing of the howlers from morn to noon was almost incessant. I believe that about one half of the whole people was carried off by this visitation [.]" (p. 283ff.). - The frontispiece shows a group of travellers on horseback passing the skeletons of impaled robbers in the Balkans, captioned "Eastern Travel". The plate shows a baggage raft and some swimmers crossing the River Jordan. gilt stamped full red Morocco with spine-title. Leading edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Please ask specific questions on details, condition, and shipping prior to bidding, ALL ITEMS ARE SOLD AS IS, and the bidder will be responsible for payment. We box and ship what we can to keep costs low, and use USPS and UPS. Large items, extremely fragile, and high value items will be packed by UPS. Quotes available on request
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Dimensions:
- 6" x 9" Condition:
- Very Good - Excellent Condition with no missing or torn pages.
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