Browning, Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, 1873 1stEd.
"Red Cotton Night-Cap Country; or Turfs and Towers" by Robert Browning, published by Smith, Elder & Company, London in 1873. First Edition. A copy of Hugh MacLeod Innes autographed and dated 4th February 1888 on the title page; it also belonged to Ashby Bland Crowder with his ex-libris inside front cover.
The poem was published during the first week of May 1873 by Smith, Elder & Co. It was not reprint until 1889. Along with "The Inn Album", it formed volume 12 of his "Poetical Works".
"Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, or Turf and Towers" (1873) is a poem in blank verse by Robert Browning. It tells a story of sexual intrigue, religious obsession and violent death in contemporary Paris and Normandy, closely based on the true story of the death, supposedly by suicide, of the jewellery heir Antoine Mellerio.
Having been originally told about the case of Antoine Mellerio in 1870 by his friend Joseph Milsand, Browning went on to research the facts with great thoroughness, reading newspaper reports and transcripts of the legal documents and interviewing residents of the district. Browning wrote "Red Cotton Night-Cap Country" during December 1872 and January 1873, while the lawsuit over Mellerio's will was still under appeal.
Thomas Carlyle remarked in conversation that there were "ingenious remarks here and there; but nobody out of bedlam ever before thought of choosing such a theme". On the other hand, The Examiner thanked Browning for "his brave and eloquent unfolding of some of the chief social abuses of the present day". A few years later, the poet Arthur Symons praised it for virtues not normally associated with Browning: "No tale could be more straightforward, no language more lucid, no verse more free from harshness or irregularity", while G.K. Chesterton wrote that "Browning was one of those wise men who can perceive the terrible and impressive poetry of the police-news which is commonly treated as vulgarity".
Robert Browning [1812-1889] is one of the most significant Victorian Poets and, of course, English Poetry. Much of his reputation is based upon his mastery of the dramatic monologue although his talents encompassed verse plays and even a well-regarded essay on Shelley during a long and prolific career. Although the early part of Robert Browning's creative life was spent in comparative obscurity, he has come to be regarded as one of the most important English poets of the Victorian period. His dramatic monologues and the psycho-historical epic "The Ring and the Book" (1868-1869), a novel in verse, have established him as a major figure in the history of English poetry. His claim to attention as a children's writer is more modest, resting as it does almost entirely on one poem, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin".
Provenance:
Hugh McLeod Innes (1862-1944), British writer.
He was born in India, where his father John James McLeod Innes, a lieutenant in the Bengal Engineers, won a Victoria Cross in the Indian Mutiny. Hugh McLeod Innes was for over thirty years a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. "For more than fifty years Fellow of the College, Hugh McLeod Innes was Junior Bursar for four years and Senior Bursar for thirty-six years. He found our finances straitened and left them strengthened. A Scot, he possessed the characteristic virtues of his country, being cautious in decision but pertinacious in action. He earned to an unusual degree the friendship and respect of all." [Trinity College, Cambridge]
Hugh McLeod Innes is known for his books "On the Universal and Particular in Aristotle's Theory of Knowledge" (1886), and "Fellows of Trinity College" (1941). He also wrote for the Dictionary of National Biography.
Ashby Bland Crowder, Richmond, Va. [1941-2019], Professor of English, American Literature, and the Humanities. He was a respected scholar on Victorian literature, published books on Browning, novelist William Humphrey, and poet Seamus Heaney. His edition of the poetry of John Crowe Ransom was published in 2019. He also contributed to many scholarly journals.
US: Priority (c.2-4 days) ---------- $12.50
Canada: Priority (c.2-6 weeks) ----- $27.50
World: Priority (c.2-8 weeks) ------ $37.50
Condition Report: Hard boards, publisher's green cloth with gilt stamping to spine [a little wear, darkened spine: see photos]; 4.1/2" x 7"; Bland Crowder's exlibris inside front cover, Hugh McLeod Innes dated autograph on the title page; 282 pages on heavy stock paper, a little soiling, a few page corner folds, two pages with pencil underlines and one correction, very good condition.
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"Red Cotton Night-Cap Country; or Turfs and Towers" by Robert Browning, published by Smith, Elder & Company, London in 1873. First Edition. A copy of Hugh MacLeod Innes autographed and dated 4th February 1888 on the title page; it also belonged to Ashby Bland Crowder with his ex-libris inside front cover.
The poem was published during the first week of May 1873 by Smith, Elder & Co. It was not reprint until 1889. Along with "The Inn Album", it formed volume 12 of his "Poetical Works".
"Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, or Turf and Towers" (1873) is a poem in blank verse by Robert Browning. It tells a story of sexual intrigue, religious obsession and violent death in contemporary Paris and Normandy, closely based on the true story of the death, supposedly by suicide, of the jewellery heir Antoine Mellerio.
Having been originally told about the case of Antoine Mellerio in 1870 by his friend Joseph Milsand, Browning went on to research the facts with great thoroughness, reading newspaper reports and transcripts of the legal documents and interviewing residents of the district. Browning wrote "Red Cotton Night-Cap Country" during December 1872 and January 1873, while the lawsuit over Mellerio's will was still under appeal.
Thomas Carlyle remarked in conversation that there were "ingenious remarks here and there; but nobody out of bedlam ever before thought of choosing such a theme". On the other hand, The Examiner thanked Browning for "his brave and eloquent unfolding of some of the chief social abuses of the present day". A few years later, the poet Arthur Symons praised it for virtues not normally associated with Browning: "No tale could be more straightforward, no language more lucid, no verse more free from harshness or irregularity", while G.K. Chesterton wrote that "Browning was one of those wise men who can perceive the terrible and impressive poetry of the police-news which is commonly treated as vulgarity".
Robert Browning [1812-1889] is one of the most significant Victorian Poets and, of course, English Poetry. Much of his reputation is based upon his mastery of the dramatic monologue although his talents encompassed verse plays and even a well-regarded essay on Shelley during a long and prolific career. Although the early part of Robert Browning's creative life was spent in comparative obscurity, he has come to be regarded as one of the most important English poets of the Victorian period. His dramatic monologues and the psycho-historical epic "The Ring and the Book" (1868-1869), a novel in verse, have established him as a major figure in the history of English poetry. His claim to attention as a children's writer is more modest, resting as it does almost entirely on one poem, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin".
Provenance:
Hugh McLeod Innes (1862-1944), British writer.
He was born in India, where his father John James McLeod Innes, a lieutenant in the Bengal Engineers, won a Victoria Cross in the Indian Mutiny. Hugh McLeod Innes was for over thirty years a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. "For more than fifty years Fellow of the College, Hugh McLeod Innes was Junior Bursar for four years and Senior Bursar for thirty-six years. He found our finances straitened and left them strengthened. A Scot, he possessed the characteristic virtues of his country, being cautious in decision but pertinacious in action. He earned to an unusual degree the friendship and respect of all." [Trinity College, Cambridge]
Hugh McLeod Innes is known for his books "On the Universal and Particular in Aristotle's Theory of Knowledge" (1886), and "Fellows of Trinity College" (1941). He also wrote for the Dictionary of National Biography.
Ashby Bland Crowder, Richmond, Va. [1941-2019], Professor of English, American Literature, and the Humanities. He was a respected scholar on Victorian literature, published books on Browning, novelist William Humphrey, and poet Seamus Heaney. His edition of the poetry of John Crowe Ransom was published in 2019. He also contributed to many scholarly journals.
US: Priority (c.2-4 days) ---------- $12.50
Canada: Priority (c.2-6 weeks) ----- $27.50
World: Priority (c.2-8 weeks) ------ $37.50
Condition Report: Hard boards, publisher's green cloth with gilt stamping to spine [a little wear, darkened spine: see photos]; 4.1/2" x 7"; Bland Crowder's exlibris inside front cover, Hugh McLeod Innes dated autograph on the title page; 282 pages on heavy stock paper, a little soiling, a few page corner folds, two pages with pencil underlines and one correction, very good condition.
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