Westward Ho! or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh

Cambridge: Macmillan & Co., 1855. Cloth. Good. 7.5" by 5". None. The uncommon second edition of one of Kingsley's most popular novels. Bound in blue cloth with gilt lettering. Complete in Three Volumes. This particular copy comes from the Worcester Public Library, Reference Department, with a library issue label to the front pastedowns stamped 1904. There is an ink library number to each title page, and ink stamps to the title page and several pages throughout the text. "Kingsley's greatest popular success, the historical novel Westward Ho! (1855), was originally planned as a patriotic anti-Catholic tale about the defeat of the Spanish Armada which he hoped would strike a sympathetic note amid contemporary anxieties about "the Pope and the French invasion", triggered by the restoration of the papal hierarchy in England in 1850 and the aggressive anti-English posturing of Emperor Napoleon III. By the time the novel was finished patriotic feeling had been redirected, as England was fighting Russia in the Crimean War, of which Kingsley was an enthusiastic supporter, but this made the novel seem even more timely" -ODNB. In a publisher's original cloth binding. The bindings are generally tight and firm. The front inner hinge of volume one is slightly strained with the title page and dedication only partially attached. There is only mild wear to the extremities, with just mild rubbing with sunning and labels to the spines. Internally the pages have slight browning and the occasional spot. Good