{"product_id":"beardsley-aubrey-under-the-hill-and-other-essays-in-prose-and-verse-with-illustrations","title":"BEARDSLEY, Aubrey. Under the Hill and Other Essays in Prose and Verse … with Illustrations.","description":"\u003ch3 style=\"font-variant: small-caps\"\u003eTable Talk \u0026amp; Taboo Tannhӓuser\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBEARDSLEY, Aubrey.\u003c\/strong\u003e Under the Hill and Other Essays in Prose and Verse … with Illustrations. \u003ci\u003eLondon and New York. John Lane, the Bodley Head\u003c\/i\u003e. 1904.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4to. Publisher’s blue cloth, peacock-feather designs stamped in gilt to upper board, upper board and spine lettered directly in gilt; pp. xi, [5], 70, [71–80], [4 (advertisements)]; photogravure frontispiece, 14 plates by Beardsley included in pagination (of which one in colour) with printed tissue guards, two tailpieces by Beardsley in the text; hinges cracked, slight wear to corners and extremities (colour subtly retouched); half-title, frontispiece, and title reinforced with tissue to inner margin, offsetting to title and limitation statement, lightly toned throughout; a good copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFirst edition thus of John Lane’s expurgated version of Beardsley’s unfinished erotic work, including three hitherto unpublished drawings by Beardsley.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeardsley’s ‘Fred Brown, N.E.A.C.’, a study of seven heads (pictured on the same page), and his intended frontispiece for Zola’s \u003ci\u003eLa Faute de l’Abbé Mouret\u003c\/i\u003e appear here for the first time. Beardsley’s \u003ci\u003eVenus and Tannhäuser\u003c\/i\u003e – the first three chapters of which appeared in expurgated form as \u003ci\u003eUnder the Hill\u003c\/i\u003e in the first issue of \u003ci\u003eThe Savoy\u003c\/i\u003e (January 1896) – is inspired by the folkloric German tale of the knight and poet–musician Tannhäuser, who is lured into the Mountain of Venus and spends several years indulging in hedonistic pleasures.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing the appearance of the first few chapters in \u003ci\u003eThe Savoy\u003c\/i\u003e, in July 1896 ‘Smithers announced that serialization was discontinued, but that [\u003ci\u003eVenus and Tannhäuser\u003c\/i\u003e] would be published in book form with numerous illustrations as soon as Beardsley was well enough to complete it’ (\u003ci\u003eLetters,\u003c\/i\u003e quoted in Samuels Lasner). Beardsley’s erotic treatment of the legend remained unfinished, however, likely due to his conversion to Catholicism in 1897 as well as his declining health.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs well as \u003ci\u003eUnder the Hill\u003c\/i\u003e, this volume contains ‘The Three Musicians’, ‘The Ballad of a Barber’, and Catullus’s Carmen CI, all previously published in \u003ci\u003eThe Savoy\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as two letters to the press and ‘Table Talk of Aubrey Beardsley’, a series of aphorisms which Beardsley had been working on in the summer of 1896, ten of which are included here and are seemingly published for the first time. He writes that the Brompton Oratory is ‘the only place in London where one can forget that it is Sunday’, that Turner is ‘only a rhetorician in paint’, and complains ‘how few of our young English impressionists knew the difference between a palette and a picture! However, I believe that Walter Sickert \u003ci\u003edid\u003c\/i\u003e – sly dog!’ (pp. 63–64).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSamuels Lasner 141.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSKU: \u003c\/strong\u003e2124727\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Henry Sotheran Limited","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64326527287673,"sku":"2124727","price":500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0045\/2178\/7426\/files\/2124727.jpg?v=1787325303","url":"https:\/\/sotherans.co.uk\/products\/beardsley-aubrey-under-the-hill-and-other-essays-in-prose-and-verse-with-illustrations","provider":"Sotherans","version":"1.0","type":"link"}