The Works of the Right Honourable Lord Byron. In Five Volumes

Zwickau: Brothers Schumann, 1818. Engraved frontispiece (a character portrait) in each volume. xxii, [ii], 176; xii, 16, [2], 17-144; xvi, 159, [1]; viii, 136; x, [vi], 127, [1] pp. 5 vols. 12mo. Publisher's blue printed wrappers, in two-part pink paper-covered box with green label ("Byron"). Covers slightly dog-eared, light rubbing to box, in all a remarkably well-preserved set. Doesn't fit in box/7/30/21. Engraved frontispiece (a character portrait) in each volume. xxii, [ii], 176; xii, 16, [2], 17-144; xvi, 159, [1]; viii, 136; x, [vi], 127, [1] pp. 5 vols. 12mo. The first five volumes, complete in itself, of the "Pocket edition of English classics" published by August and Friedrich Schumann of Zwickau in Saxony. The series, which presented contemporary English literature, eventually exteneded to many volumes, with the Byron volumes alone taking up some 30 parts. August was the father of the composer Robert Schumann, who would fonldy recall his youth in Zwickau, surrounded by his father's books. Byron was a particular influence on the young composer, who later set the poem "I saw thee weep" to music as the lied Die Weinende.

Contents of the five volumes as follows: I: Childe Harold; II: The Giaour and The Bride of Abydos; III: The Corsair and Lara; IV: Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte and miscellaneous poems, and Hebrew Melodies; V: The Siege of Corinth, Parisina, and miscellaneous poems (ending with the Monody on the death of Sheridan). Provenance: contemporary inscription on first vol. title-page, "Pour Madame Randolf de son amie Nannett Steinwarz"; later inscription on box, "MA Skeates August 1847