LITERARY HOURS: OR SKETCHES CRITICAL, NARRATIVE AND POETICAL ... The Third Edition. London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, Strand, 1804. Octavo, three volumes: pp. [1-6] [i] ii-iv [v-vi] [1] 2-458; [1-2] [i] ii [1] 2-481 [482: blank]; [i] ii-x; [1-2] 3 ii [i.e. 4] [1-3] 4-552 [i] ii-vi [note: volume three (A)2 recto is mis-numbered "ii"], professionally rebound in modern three-quarter leather and marbled boards with black leather title and volume number pieces. Third edition, considerably enlarged. A miscellany of poems, essays and short stories, many of the latter being supernatural or Gothic. This 1804 edition adds a third volume, which includes "Sir Egbert, a Gothic Tale," pp. [89]-171, and a supernatural poem, "The Spectre, a Legendary Tale," pp. [497]-514. "The sixty 'hours' in the 1804 edition include essays on the operation of the Gothic aesthetic and response to various supernatural experiences as well as short tales of terror illustrating his discussion of Gothic narrative theory. 'On Gothic Superstition' (hour number 6 [here number 8]), and 'On Objects of Terror' (hour number 15 [here number 17]), are landmarks in Gothic criticism. The outstanding piece in the collection is the Radcliffean set piece, 'The Abbey of Clunedale.'" - Barron (ed), Horror Literature 1-25. "Drake's place as theoretician of the Gothic no doubt exceeds his talent as a practitioner of Gothic tales. But his work remains important because he is to Gothicism what Edmund Burke is to the whole philosophy of the sublime in art: its most acute critical spokesman." -Frank, The First Gothics 116. Barron (ed), Fantasy and Horror (1999) 1-44. Birkhead, The Tale of Terror, pp. 32-7. Summers, A Gothic Bibliography, p. 37. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 1-99. NCBEL III 1279. Bleiler (1978), p. 64. Owner's name clipped from the upper edge of each title leaf, a tight, clean, very good copy. (#137365).
Price: $450.00
"THE THIRD EDITION" on copyright page.