LORNA DOONE: A Romance of Exmoor (Great Illustrated Classics Series)

New York:: Dodd, Mead,, n.d. (ca 1950, c 1943). Hardcover -. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. (sunning to the spine of the dj, as is common with this series, some short closed edgetears) . Illustrated edition. With illustrations from photographs of the Doone Country together with an introductory biographical sketch of the author by Basil Davenport. ages. Although the author considered this a work of romance based on "the nurse tales of his childhood - the savage deeds of the outlaw Doones in the depth of Bagworthy forest, the beauty of the hapless maid brought up in the midst of them. . ." rather than an historical novel, it did include real events and Blackmore was known for the care he took in depicting the speech of his characters. Set in the late 17th century in the area around Somerset and Devon, this was originally published anonymously in three volumes in 1869 - when it reprinted the following year in a one-volume edition, it was immediately successful and has not been out of print since. This is a handsome edition in the Great Illustrated Classics of the early 1950s, bound in tan cloth with a red cloth spine with a burgundy title panel and decorations and lettering in gilt. 646 pp.