Athens, its Rise and Fall, in 2 vols.

Full title: Athens, its Rise and Fall, with Views of the Literature, Philosophy and Social Life of the Athenian People. Complete in two volumes. First edition. The author's name appears as Edward Lytton Bulwer, not the later rendering of Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Printed by Ibotson and Palmer, Savoy Street, London, a prominent printing firm active during the 1820s and 1830s. Approx. 9 x 5.5 inches. Contemporary brown leatherette bindings with elaborate gilt-stamped design and lettering, hubbed spines, and blind-stamped rules to the boards. Generally unbumped spine heads and tails, and the corners gently bumped and moderately rubbed. The hinges are in a good state though with the leatherette lightly rubbed along the spine edges. A.E.G. Text blocks firmly bound in. A front FEP inscribed in a neat ink hand, "with the best wishes of his sincere friend", the remainder of the inscription nearly invisible. Vol. I with xiv and 484 numbered pages. Vol. II with viii and 596 numbered pages. Author's "Dedication" dated March 1837. With 3-page "Advertisement" at the front of Vol. I. There are no plates or illustrations. Intermittent light foxing throughout, mostly marginal, and especially near the preliminaries. Minor/moderate age toning to the pages of both volumes. Else generally clean, inside and out. A Very Good Minus set of two volumes. Scarce as a true first edition. 3 lbs. 11 oz. A historical work by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (Baron Lytton), first published in 1837. Bulwer-Lytton [1803-1873] was an English novelist, playwright, and politician. Athens, its Rise and Fall, interweaves political and military history with cultural, literary, and philosophical analysis of ancient Athens. The book traces Athenian history from the earliest periods and the legislation of Solon through the Persian Wars, the Age of Cimon, and the Age of Pericles into the Peloponnesian War. Athens, its Rise and Fall, is the most important and readable of the Victorian histories of ancient Greece. It stands alongside Macauley and Carlyle as a great historical work of British Romanticism, and anticipates the thinking of George Grote and John Stuart Mill on Greek history by over a decade. An essential book for the library of any scholar or student of Ancient Greece.…