THE SENSITIVE PLANT

First edition with Housman illustrations, first printing. Publisher's original blue cloth over beveled boards with titles and decorations in gilt to the upper board and spine. Top edge gilt. Title page printed in brown and red. Beautifully illustrated with twelve tissue-guarded black and white plates by Laurence Housman. An excellent near fine copy, the binding firm with just a little rubbing at the extremities, the cloth and gilt bright and fresh. The spine is slightly rolled. The contents, with a small previous owner's signature to the top of the front endpaper are otherwise clean throughout.

'The Sensitive Plant', a relatively late poem in Shelley's short but prolific writing career, takes a symbolic, mythic approach to the themes of beauty and death. In his note on the illustrations, Housman states his belief that illustration cannot improve or add to an already beautiful poem, and can only capture the unique response of the individual reader; the richly detailed, atmospheric garden he offers here is surely a worthy and beautiful response to Shelley's vision.