Elizabeth and Essex

Limited first edition. 8vo. Pp. [viii], 244, [13 (index)]. Cloth backed patterned boards, stamped in gilt to spine. Portrait frontis., illust. b/w plates. Bibliography, index. Deckled edges. Designed by W.A. Dwiggins, and printed by W.E. Rudge. With the rare fragile glassine wrapper. #136 of a signed limited edition of 1060 (of which 1000 were for the US market under the Crosby Gaige imprint).

Light browning to textblock edges, scattered foxing to top and bottom edges, else fine.

An experimental biographical account of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and her ill-fated relationship with the Earl of Essex. Here Strachey employs Freudian theories within a structure derived from the Elizabethan stage, in a tale of high drama with passion the overriding motive and tragedy the fatal consequence.