New York: Dodd, Mead, 1930. Hardcover. near fine. Slim hardcover in black cloth stamped in gilt. 124 pp. including author's notes. A tight, near fine example, cover gilt stamping bright, spine lettering a touch rubbed at the author's name. Tasteful vintage bookplate front pastedown and corresponding ownership signature top edge front free endpaper. Shaw's fictionalized account of the relationship between Roman Emperor Julius Caesar and Egyptian Queen Cleopatra. The play was first produced in 1901 and today is most known as the basis for the charming 1945 movie starring Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh in the title roles, a film on which Shaw closely collaborated.

Synopsis

From the book:An October night on the Syrian border of Egypt towards the end of the XXXIII Dynasty, in the year 706 by Roman computation, afterwards reckoned by Christian computation as 48 B.C. A great radiance of silver fire, the dawn of a moonlit night, is rising in the east. The stars and the cloudless sky are our own contemporaries, nineteen and a half centuries younger than we know them; but you would not guess that from their appearance. Below them are two notable drawbacks of civilization: a palace, and soldiers. The palace, an old, low, Syrian building of whitened mud, is not so ugly as Buckingham Palace; and the officers in the courtyard are more highly civilized than modern English officers: for example, they do not dig up the corpses of their dead enemies and mutilate them, as we dug up Cromwell and the Mahdi. They are in two groups: one intent on the gambling of their captain Belzanor, a warrior of fifty, who, with his spear on the ground beside his knee, is stooping to throw dice with a sly-looking young Persian recruit; the other gathered about a guardsman who has just finished telling a naughty story (still current in English barracks) at which they are laughing uproariously. They are about a dozen in number, all highly aristocratic young Egyptian guardsmen, handsomely equipped with weapons and armor, very unEnglish in point of not being ashamed of and uncomfortable in their profess-sional dress; on the contrary, rather ostentatiously and arrogantly warlike, as valuing themselves on their military caste.

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Details

Bookseller: The Old Book Shop of Bordentown (ABNJ) (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: E17958B
Title: Caesar and Cleopatra: A Page Of History
Author: George Bernard Shaw
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used - near fine
Quantity Available: 1
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 1930
Keywords: theatre, theater, plays, stage, movies, hollywood, film, vivien leigh, claude rains
Bookseller catalogs: Theatre;

Terms of Sale

The Old Book Shop of Bordentown (ABNJ)

TRACKING AND INSURANCE AT OPTION OF BUYER. ON UNINSURED ITEMS, OUR RESPONSIBILITY ENDS WITH PROOF OF SHIPPING---NO EXCEPTIONS! Books are returnable if misdescribed; we must be notified within 48 hours of receipt if making a return. We conform to accepted ABAA grading. "First edition" means "first printing" unless noted; if it doesn't say it has a jacket then it doesn't; faults such as ownership signatures, price clipping, etc. will be noted in the listing. Member ABAA, ILAB, ABNJ.

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The Old Book Shop of Bordentown (ABNJ)

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Bordentown, New Jersey

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About The Old Book Shop of Bordentown (ABNJ)

The Old Book Shop of Bordentown is a general used/rare bookshop open to the public Tues.-Sunday 11AM to 5PM (8 PM on Fridays). 10,000 books on premises with another 25,000 in stock. Areas of speciality include baseball, New Jersey, American literature, mysteries. Member, ABAA, ILAB,Antiquarian Booksellers of New Jersey. Located in historic Bordentown City, New Jeresy (est. 1682).

Glossary

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Bookplate: Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
Spine: The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Cloth: "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
Tight: Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
Fine: A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Gilt: The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...