Pompeii by MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON - 1819

Cambridge: Printed by J. Smith, 1819, 1819. First edition. NCBEL III, 1463. Fine copy.. 8vo, original plain blue wrappers, [16] pages, a.e.g. Engraved title-page. The first book by Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-59), a 13-page poem of 280 stanzas on the popular classical subject, Pompeii and its famous destruction. Like many first books by noted English authors, Pompeii was a prize poem, which Macaulay delivered at the Cambridge commencement July, 1819. When copies of Pompeii were bound, the handsome engraved title-page , present here, was often discarded. This copy also has the unusual distinction of having all the edges gilt, including the edges of the wrappers, which is perhaps the case on all copies in the wrappers?