KINGLAKE, Alexander William.

London: John Ollivier…1844

8vo, 1 leaf (half-title), pp. xi, 418, folding hand-coloured lithographed frontispiece and 1 coloured plate. Late nineteenth century vellum over boards by Riviere & Son, spine lettered in gilt, inner gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, t.e.g. Minor foxing on the first few leaves and (more so) on the endpapers, upper cover slightly faded at top, but a very good copy in a fine binding. With the Prince of Wales’ feathers in gilt on the upper cover; bookplates of William Orme Foster and Norman Travis.

FIRST EDITION. “In August 1834, Kinglake set out on an eighteen-month odyssey through Europe and the Ottoman empire. After encountering plague in Constantinople, he travelled to Smyrna, Cyprus, Beirut, the Holy Land, and Jerusalem, before crossing the Sinai Desert to Cairo. Following three weeks in Egypt, he returned north through Damascus and Asia Minor then via Athens, Corfu, Rome, and Turin to London. On 5 May 1837, Kinglake was called to the bar but…continued to travel, visiting Switzerland in 1843, and the following year Eothen, his account of the 1834–5 Turkish adventures, was published and included two of his own watercolours” (ODNB).

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