From Ritual to Romance (Publisher presentation copy)

RARE, last copy seen at auction 1983, no other copies in current commerce. xv, 202 pp. " With the Compliments of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press" slip laid in. Very Good Plus, corners bumped and with small rubs. Weston's examination of the roots of the King Arthur and the Holy Grail legend. It was one of the books named in the notes at the back of T S Eliot s The Waste Land (1922): "Not only the title, but the plan and a good deal of the incidental symbolism of the poem were suggested by Miss Jessie. L Weston s book on the Grail legend . Indeed, so deeply am I indebted, Miss Weston s book will elucidate the difficulties of the poem much better than my notes can do; and I recommend it (apart from the great interest of the book itself) to any who think such elucidation of the poem worth the trouble." Jessie Laidlay Weston (1850-1928) was an established translator and interpreter of medieval texts and was swiftly recognized as the leading English Arthurian scholar of her time. She accrued great academic respect and her research has been described as "prosecuted with that patience, zeal and love of the truth which are characteristic of the great scholar" (ODNB). This is one of two books (The other book being J.G. Frazer s Golden Bough, 1890) which was prominently displayed in Francis Ford Coppola s Apocalypse Now (1979). It was being read by the Colonel Kurtz character within the confines of his hidden jungle compound. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near fine/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾"