The Savoy
By Symons, Arthur (ed.)
Three volumes. Octavo (10" x 7 5/8", 255mm x 192mm). Vol. I: 14 2-108 A8 B-M8 [$2 2-10; $1 B-M]. 172 leaves, pp. (illustrations included in pagination) 1-13 14-170, [2], 21-13 214-206. With tipped in Christmas-card at end of issue 1 (108). With many illustrations. Vol. II: A8 B-F8 G2 2A8 2B-F8 2G2( 2G2) 3A8 3B-E8 3F2. 141 leaves, pp. (illustrations included in pagination) 1-15 16-110, 21-11 212-100, 31-11 312-92. With many illustrations. Vol. III: A8 B-E8 F4 G2 2A8 2B-E8 2F8( F8) 3A8 3B-F8 3G4. 145, pp. (illustrations included in pagination) 1-11 12-100, 21-13 214-96 31-13 314-101, [3]. With many illustrations. Three volumes comprising all (eight) issues Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley (et al.) Bound in publisher s blue buckram with gilt pictorial covers designed by Aubrey Beardsley. On the spine, title, editor, number, publisher and date gilt, and a gilt ornament within a rectangular fillet. All edges uncut (i.e., untrimmed) Vol. II 2A2.3 unopened; vol. III. 3G3.4 unopened. Mild rubbing to corners. Head- and tail-pieces bumped. Vol. I 108, in which the Christmas-card has been tipped, is detached. Edges of text-block browned, otherwise remarkably clean. Beardsley s gilt designs to the covers are quite fresh. A splendid set, utterly unsophisticated. Conceived by Symons, Beardsley and Smithers (the publisher infamous for his pornography), "The Savoy" features short stories, poems, essays and reviews, along with many illustrations (thirty-two by Beardsley, ten by William Blake), from bright names in the late-XIXc firmament: Symons and Beardsley, George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Max Beerbohm, Havelock Ellis, Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Heuffer (later Ford), Paul Verlaine, Ernest Dowson and Edmund Gosse inter alia. Swimming against the current of criticism that continues today, Symons in the first issue articulates the periodical s modus operandi: "We have no formulas, and we desire no false unity of form or matter. We have not invented a new point of view. We are not Realists, or Romanticists, or Decadents. For us, all art is good which is good art." (Vol. I, p. [5].) To be sure, "Decadent" is the easiest label for the publication, but it is by no means indulgent. Still, its reception by the public was not as warm as that by the critics. Initially quarterly, it accelerated to monthly by the second half of the year, whence the eight issues. Symons in his editorial note to the final issue (vol. III, p. [7]) announces the publication of the three-volume set with Beardsley-designed covers, of which the present item is an example. It was an efflorescence that could not persist; even so, it leaves us with Havelock Ellis s immortally wise words about populism: "For it may be a foolish fancy, but I do not like drinking at those pools which are turbid from the hooves of my fellow creatures; when I cannot get there before the others I like to wait until a considerable time after they have left. I could not read my Catullus in peace if I had an uneasy sense that thousands of my fellow creatures were writing to the newspapers to say what a nice girl Lesbia was, and how horrid a person Gellius, condescending to approve the poet s fraternal sentiments, lamenting the unwholesome tone of his Atys." (Vol. III, p. 36.)
Published by: Leonard Smithers, 1896
Vendor: Pryor-Johnson Rare Books, ABAA
By Symons, Arthur (ed.)
Three volumes. Octavo (10" x 7 5/8", 255mm x 192mm). Vol. I: 14 2-108 A8 B-M8 [$2 2-10; $1 B-M]. 172 leaves, pp. (illustrations included in pagination) 1-13 14-170, [2], 21-13 214-206. With tipped in Christmas-card at end of issue 1 (108). With many illustrations. Vol. II: A8 B-F8 G2 2A8 2B-F8 2G2( 2G2) 3A8 3B-E8 3F2. 141 leaves, pp. (illustrations included in pagination) 1-15 16-110, 21-11 212-100, 31-11 312-92. With many illustrations. Vol. III: A8 B-E8 F4 G2 2A8 2B-E8 2F8( F8) 3A8 3B-F8 3G4. 145, pp. (illustrations included in pagination) 1-11 12-100, 21-13 214-96 31-13 314-101, [3]. With many illustrations. Three volumes comprising all (eight) issues Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley (et al.) Bound in publisher s blue buckram with gilt pictorial covers designed by Aubrey Beardsley. On the spine, title, editor, number, publisher and date gilt, and a gilt ornament within a rectangular fillet. All edges uncut (i.e., untrimmed) Vol. II 2A2.3 unopened; vol. III. 3G3.4 unopened. Mild rubbing to corners. Head- and tail-pieces bumped. Vol. I 108, in which the Christmas-card has been tipped, is detached. Edges of text-block browned, otherwise remarkably clean. Beardsley s gilt designs to the covers are quite fresh. A splendid set, utterly unsophisticated. Conceived by Symons, Beardsley and Smithers (the publisher infamous for his pornography), "The Savoy" features short stories, poems, essays and reviews, along with many illustrations (thirty-two by Beardsley, ten by William Blake), from bright names in the late-XIXc firmament: Symons and Beardsley, George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, Max Beerbohm, Havelock Ellis, Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Heuffer (later Ford), Paul Verlaine, Ernest Dowson and Edmund Gosse inter alia. Swimming against the current of criticism that continues today, Symons in the first issue articulates the periodical s modus operandi: "We have no formulas, and we desire no false unity of form or matter. We have not invented a new point of view. We are not Realists, or Romanticists, or Decadents. For us, all art is good which is good art." (Vol. I, p. [5].) To be sure, "Decadent" is the easiest label for the publication, but it is by no means indulgent. Still, its reception by the public was not as warm as that by the critics. Initially quarterly, it accelerated to monthly by the second half of the year, whence the eight issues. Symons in his editorial note to the final issue (vol. III, p. [7]) announces the publication of the three-volume set with Beardsley-designed covers, of which the present item is an example. It was an efflorescence that could not persist; even so, it leaves us with Havelock Ellis s immortally wise words about populism: "For it may be a foolish fancy, but I do not like drinking at those pools which are turbid from the hooves of my fellow creatures; when I cannot get there before the others I like to wait until a considerable time after they have left. I could not read my Catullus in peace if I had an uneasy sense that thousands of my fellow creatures were writing to the newspapers to say what a nice girl Lesbia was, and how horrid a person Gellius, condescending to approve the poet s fraternal sentiments, lamenting the unwholesome tone of his Atys." (Vol. III, p. 36.)
Published by: Leonard Smithers, 1896
Vendor: Pryor-Johnson Rare Books, ABAA
