Search Results: Classic Literature from 20 Ants Fine Books, IOBA

Boston: Small, Maynard & Company. Very Good+ in Good+ dust jacket. 1925. First American Edition. Hardcover. Spine ends slightly bumped and bump to one corner. Light soil to the head and tail edges of the front cover, two tiny marks at the head. Faint toning at the edges of the pastedowns and endpapers. Dust jacket is intact with considerable wear and soil. Chips to head and tail of spine, all edges, and corners. Previous owner's name in ink on front pastedown. ; At once mystic and a celebration of life, the rubaiyat (quatrains) form a beautiful, poetic work by Omar Khaiyam [Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami] (1040-1131) the Persian Sufi poet, philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician. The rubaiyat are considered by some to exalt earthly pleasure, consider death, and point out the unreliability of religion in addressing human issues. This English translation by Frederick Rolfe ["Baron Corvo"] (1860-1913) was based on the French… Read More

New York: Privately Printed. Near Fine in Good dust jacket. 1930. Limited/Numbered Edition. Hardcover. Slight abrasion to head edge of front pastedown. Slightest rubbing to spine ends. Ink stamp to rear endpaper. Lacks the publisher's slipcase. Dust jacket chipped at head and tail edges, split along spine, but together in a paper-backed mylar jacket.; This is Gaius Petronius Arbiter's classic satire of the extremes of amoral 'bro culture' in ancient Rome. Copy 625 of 1200 of this edition, "privately printed" during a time of US censorship. The origins of the text are vague, but are believed to be the work of Gaius Petronius Arbiter, Roman Emperor Nero's advisor on matters of taste, fashion, luxury, and extravagance. This book is his satirical retelling of the self-indulgent extremes of immoral living. The manuscript was fragmented, not contiguous, and there are only assumptions about what fragments may be missing and how they linked the known fragments. This… Read More

Cleveland: Fine Editions Press. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1946. Hardcover. The spine is sunned, but gilt lettering is strong and attractive. Nick at center of rear hinge. Wear and small spot to the edge of the spine head. 3/8" stray red ink mark at the head corner and tiny bump to the tail corner of the front cover. Slight offsetting to front endpaper. ; This classic work of American literature recounts the life of Hester Prynne in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s. Hester and a lover she refuses to name conceive a daughter, without being married, and Hester winds her way through a story of sin, guilt, societal recrimination, dignity, and redemption while raising her daughter Pearl. The scarlet letter is the letter "A,", in red, that she is forced to wear to brand her as an adulterer. One of the first mass-produced books in the United States, it remains a powerful statement about society, religion, and dignity. With an insightful Introduction of the work… Read More