THE BRITISH ISLES; General Features - Topography - Statistics - Government and Administration : Illustrated by Numerous Engravings and Maps

Quarto, 10.8 in. x 7.5 in., pp. viii, 516. Illustrated with 236 engravings and maps, including one two-page color map of the British Isles. Full blonde calf with thin double gilt frame and gilt Coat of Arms to front. Gilt title on black panels to spine; five raised bands and decorative floral design to spine panels. Gilt edges. A couple scratches and light stains to boards; bottom rear cporner just showing. Gilt dentelles and marbled endpapers. Bookplate to front pastedown indicates the book was gifted to an honored Westminster College student in 1891. Bright interior. Spine and hinges tight. Élisée Reclus (1830 - 1905) was a French geographer and anarchist who was awarded the gold medal of the Paris Geographical Society in 1892 for La Nouvelle Géographie universelle. Serving in the National Guard in defense of the Commune, he was taken prisoner in April 1871; but his sentence of transportation for life was commuted in January 1872 to one of perpetual banishment after European scientists had appealed to the government on his behalf. After a visit to Italy, he settled at Clarens, Switz. Though benefitting under the amnesty of 1879, Reclus had meanwhile lost none of his revolutionary enthusiasm. His great work (La Nouvelle Géographie universelle,19 vol. (1875-94; The Earth and Its Inhabitants, 1878-94), is profusely illustrated with maps, plans, and engravings and characterized by a brillance of exposition that gives his work permanent scientific value.…