Printed as part of Ginn & Company’s series of Standard English Classics, this compilation of the poetry of George Gordon, Lord Byron contains both poems in full and excerpts of Byron’s longer poetical works. As taken from the introduction: “The primary purpose of this book is to give the young reader some insight into Byron’s genius by presenting for study and for reading those of his poems which should make the most immediate appear. For such a purpose much of Byron’s poetry is admirably fitted, since, as a whole, it is not abstruse in its subject matter, is lucid it its expression, and, above all, is spirited and energetic.”
The text has been compiled and edited by Samuel Marion Tucker, Professor of English at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. His footnotes and informational interjections are helpful in providing historical context as well as clarification about Byron’s many allusions. He strikes a tone that is friendly, helpful, and bit eager without being overbearing or pedantic. A clear love of Byron shines through in a way that is delightfully unexpected. Tucker truly makes Byron accessible for a wide range of readers regardless of their educational background and familiarity with European history or classical mythology.
- Title: Selections from Byron: Childe Harold, Canto IV, The Prisoner of Chillon Mazeppa, and Other Poems
- Editor: Samuel Marion Tucker, PhD
- Publisher: Ginn and Company
- Year: 1911
- Series: Standard English Classics
- Printer: Atheneum Press
- Place: Boston
- Condition: Bound in green cloth covered boards with black particulars, this book has some general shelf wear along the edges of the binding, including a particularly noticeable scuffed patch at the center bottom of the front cover. The binding is tight. The pages of the main text block are clean and crisp. There is a small fold at the bottom corner of the first page as well as a pencil note on p.3. The pages are slightly tanned with age, with the end pages slightly darker than the main text block.