Norman Douglas Fine Full Green Leather Binding 1929 South Wind Isle of Capri

Description: Leather. Large 8vo. Argus Books, Chicago, IL. 1929. Volume I: Color frontispiece, color illustrated title page + 7 full page plates (2 in color); text illustrations; 288 pages. Volume II: Color frontispiece; color illustrated title page + 7 full page plates (1 in color); text illustrations; 300 pages. First illustrated edition. Bound in full green leather by Bennett with gilt titles and design present to the spine and front board. Boards have shelf-wear present to the extremities (spine lightly darkened and faded). Marbled endpapers. No ownership marks present. Text has some underlining present in pencil present. Binding tight and solid. The author's most famous novel, originally published in 1917. This version includes beautiful full-page color illustrations and 50 chapter headings by John Austen specially commissioned for this edition (the illustrations for the first illustrated edition were done by Valenti Angelo). Austen's style varied from resembling the works of Beardsley to featuring the hallmarks of Art Deco. The book is set on an imaginary island called Nepenthe, located off the coast of Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea, but is clearly a fictionalized version of Capri. Due to its frank approach to morality and sexuality, it was somewhat controversial. Norman Douglas Fine Full Green Leather Binding 1929 South Wind Isle of Capri Description Up For Sale Today is South Wind by Norman Douglas Leather. Large 8vo. Argus Books, Chicago, IL. 1929. Volume I: Color frontispiece, color illustrated title page + 7 full page plates (2 in color); text illustrations; 288 pages. Volume II: Color frontispiece; color illustrated title page + 7 full page plates (1 in color); text illustrations; 300 pages. First illustrated edition. Bound in full green leather by Bennett with gilt titles and design present to the spine and front board. Boards have shelf-wear present to the extremities (spine lightly darkened and faded). Marbled endpapers. No ownership marks present. Text has some underlining present in pencil present. Binding tight and solid. The author's most famous novel, originally published in 1917. This version includes beautiful full-page color illustrations and 50 chapter headings by John Austen specially commissioned for this edition (the illustrations for the first illustrated edition were done by Valenti Angelo). Austen's style varied from resembling the works of Beardsley to featuring the hallmarks of Art Deco. The book is set on an imaginary island called Nepenthe, located off the coast of Italy in the Tyrrhenian Sea, but is clearly a fictionalized version of Capri. Due to its frank approach to morality and sexuality, it was somewhat controversial. Norman Douglas (1868-1952) spent a good part of his life abroad and Capri was the adoptive home of his last years. In 1911, he had already written a travel book on the Island and Sorrentine Peninsula (Siren Land), but in 1917 he issued his first novel "South Wind", that became one of the most popular reads during WWI (it is stated that many soldiers had it in their backpack). It has been defined as a conversation-novel without a plot, and its characters actually do nothing else than exchange their ideas and opinions (on the flow of existence, moral, comparative theology, aesthetics, fanaticism, medicine, cooking) as typical of Rablesian prose or what could have taken place in a respectable London club. The voices mix and tangle, endlessly and obsessively interrogating themselves with humor and intellectual disenchantment. But "South Wind" is before all else the discovery of the South, the Mediterranean, the profane art of living, modelled on ancient Greece, that Italy and Capri in particular seemed then to embody. An Anglican Bishop Mr Thomas Heard, on his way back from Africa (imaginary Bampopo) to England, visits for a short stay the Island of Nepenthe (Capri), where his cousin is staying. He will stay only a few days, but long enough to change his northern pruderie in a empathic attitude toward the worlds vices ("the frolicsome perversity"), starting from a crime he involuntarily peeps upon. The novel is full of characters: Denis, the caste poet worried by the possibility of sinning, the smiling completely pagan Italian priest Don Francesco, the "evil" Muhlen, the sceptic and artistic count Caloveglia, the "extravagant" Mr. Keith, "owner of one of the most beautiful villa's in Capri", the cousin Meadows, Miss Wilberforce an funny alcoholic that undresses in public, the rich van Koppen, the Russian mystic Bazhakulov, halfway between Rasputin and a bolschevic with his tribe of followers, Mrs. Steynlin a still appealing middle age matron that entertains a relation with a young Russian, Mr. Ernst Eames a commentator of the ancient history of Nepenthe written by a seventeenth century Italian historian. All these characters are actually inspired by people Douglas met in Capri during those roaring years as he states later on in his memory books. The Scirocco, the South Wind sweeps the Island, and everyone starts behaving strangely, or exactly like they feel like, which is the reason why the went to Nepenthe in the first place, and Bishop Heard is caught up in a spider web of distinguo and doubts until the wind strips away his moral imperatives in favour of Nepenthe's "pantheistic hedonism" and makes him "swim in the air". The roots of this novel can be traced to the concept of "Reverse Conversion" or the more modern "Going Native" that was popular in those times and is often used by D.H.Lawrence, James Hilton and others. (D.H.Lawrence used Norman Douglas as the model for his Aaron in "Aaron's Rod"). Part of the plot is borrowed from Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Marble Faun" as has been interestingly pointed out by Edmund Wilson. However, if we want to read it in the historical context it was written in and explain its lasting success to the 1930's, we must take into account that it was intended (Fussell) as "a rebuke to the winds of war that were gathering in the North of Europe", "a plea for youth and tolerance to the nations that were starting a suicidal war", but it is also a celebration of the ideas liberally generated and exposed. These ideas were those discussed in that period in the intellectual milieu and are still popular today among young people. OUR MISSION STATEMENT: Our goal is to provide the best books for the lowest prices. We understand that you have more choices than ever to buy books, so we strive to provide the best service, accurate descriptions, the cheapest shipping and the best customer service in the realm of bookselling. Thank you for visiting this listing and we hope to see you again soon! Book formats and corresponding sizes Name Abbreviations Leaves Pages Approximate cover size (width × height) inches cm folio 2º or fo 2 4 12 × 19 30.5 × 48 quarto 4º or 4to 4 8 9½ × 12 24 × 30.5 octavo 8º or 8vo 8 16 6 × 9 15 × 23 duodecimo or twelvemo 12º or 12mo 12 24 5 × 7⅜ 12.5 × 19 sextodecimo or sixteenmo 16º or 16mo 16 32 4 × 6¾ 10 × 17 octodecimo or eighteenmo 18º or 18mo 18 36 4 × 6½ 10 × 16.5 trigesimo-secundo or thirty-twomo 32º or 32mo 32 64 3½ × 5½ 9 × 14 quadragesimo-octavo or forty-eightmo 48º or 48mo 48 96 2½ × 4 6.5 × 10 sexagesimo-quarto or sixty-fourmo 64º or 64mo 64 128 2 × 3 5 × 7.5 ALL ITEMS ARE DESCRIBED TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY! PLEASE CHECK ALL THE PHOTOS BEFORE BIDDING! ALL ITEMS ARE WRAPPED IN 2 LAYERS OF BUBBLE WRAP AND THEN PLACED INTO A CUSTOM FITTED CARDBOARD MAILER. IF YOU WIN A LARGE NUMBER OF BOOKS OR A SET THE ITEMS WILL BE SHIPPED IN A STURDY BOX. IF YOU DO WIN MULTIPLE ITEMS PLEASE DO NOT PAY FOR THEM INDIVIDUALLY! 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Price: 250 USD

Location: Charlottesville, Virginia

End Time: 2024-12-26T03:23:47.000Z

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