The Modern Reader's Chaucer: The Complete Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer in Modern English by Chaucer, Geoffrey

Free Press, 1966. 4th . Soft cover. Fair. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Thicker softcover, glossy dark green wrappers, gold and white lettering, 596 pages. Ink underlining and some notes on pages 378-513 to "Troilus and Criseyde," on pages 341-351 to "The Parliament of Birds." Slight wear to tips and spine corners, creased at top back wrapper. Fair.

This is a good book if you want a whole bunch of Warwick Goble art for not a lot of money. Goble was one of the titans of British illustration in the period of Rackham, Dulac, and Heath Robinson. His masterwork is the original 40-plate 1910 Macmillan edition of Green Willow, a copy of which I may still have for sale. This book has 32 of Goble's luminous full-color illustrations, but unlike Green Willow, it's been promiscuously reprinted with all 32 of its plates. This is a 1930s reprint. It does lack the gorgeous gilt cover of the original, a copy of which I've never seen in the wild.

Tight, square, solid workmanlike binding in grey buckram with pictorial spine (non-gilt). No nonsense, book is thick as a brick. Purple topstain. This indestructible volume has little that could go wrong, and nothing has. Some slight discoloration on the binding, e.g. foxing, and to the (non-pictorial) endpapers. No detectable issues with the text block. All plates present and pristine. Owner's ex libris (William J.… Read More