Well, it seems very apt that I share this book today on Valentine's Day. A romantic treasure that I found a few months ago, at the bottom of a pile of books on a shelf, going for a song... how could it have been overlooked?
An 1895 edition of the collected works of John Keats that I love for so so many reasons.
Its beautiful bronze leather covers embossed with gilt lettering. The golden branch with bird (a Nightingale perhaps?).
The tissue paper that protects the photograph of John Keats at the front of the book.
Its foxed, browning pages illustrated with beautiful Pre-Raphaelite pictures.
The smell, the weight and age of the book.
And then there's the words
The beautiful words, the achingly sad poems to his love Fanny Brawne - it's better than any black and white weepie that I know!
8 comments:
absolutely charming post
Oooooh, SO Romantic!!! Happy Valentine's Day Sweet Kim!
What a treasure! Happy Valentine's Day to you. :0)
What a lovely book! The Imperial War Museum was fab. We went to see the Childrens War Section and also saw the First and Second World War Sections. We also saw the new exhibition Once Upon A Wartime and came home with some books for our daughter to read - I think that I will be reading them too - Carrie's war and The Silver Sword. It really is worth a visit - this museum is a little treasure.
June.
thank you. i needed the keats :)
What a magnificent treasure!
What a beautiful find. I think old books like that are just wonderful to hold, and I love the Art Nouveau design of the cover and illustrations. So precious.
Oh yes, so sad since he did "cease to be" quite soon after that. Poor young man.
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