Lalla Rookh

LALLA ROOKH BY THOMAS MOORE 1854 HENRY C. BAIRD LEATHER ILLUSTRATED. What occurred to me first when I understood this book and who wrote it, was simply how does an Irish Poet (our author Thomas Moore) get this idea into his head. This is the story of a Mughal Princess while traveling to her wedding to a king, falls in love with a poet traveling with her entourage. It turns out that the poet is the king she planned to marry who disguised himself so as to see if the Princess was marrying him for who he is. In the end, she finds out who he is really, but no spoiler alert hereI did not find out if they married after all. This gorgeous leather-bound book (6 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches, 346 pages) was published by Henry C. Baird of Philadelphia, dated 1854 and the Fourth American Edition. The book is bound with a dark leather quarter spine with five raised bands and gilt titles on the spine; the beveled boards are covered with striking marbled paper. The book is illustrated with engravings from drawings by eminent artists; there are 13 tissue-guarded captioned plates. The endpapers and the page edges are also decorated in a striking marbled pattern. Condition: This book is in very good condition. The leather is slightly rubbed and the corners bumped but still quite imposing and handsome. The marbled covers may be darkened but it is hard to say; they too are quite handsome. Inside, the book is unmarked but the tissue-guards seem to have attracted some foxing which occurs throughout the book in the pages adjacent to the plates. The text pages on the contrary are clean and bright and without toning or foxing. The front hinge is cracked, the rear intact and the binding is tight, sound and square. This book is not ex-library or a remainder. Language: ENG.…