10 volumes of Bliss Perry shops 1898 "Little Masterpieces" green-covered books: Lincoln, Franklin, Webster. Poe, Irving, Thackeray, Carlyle

These books are indeed "little masterpieces". They are little not in the sense that the writing and the thinking are limited: good perhaps but not great. Rather they are literally little: The books themselves are small, just four inches by six-and-one-quarter inches.

They are lovely books, gilded on the top edges so that the volumes gleam softly. Gorgeous books, really, with the titles and authors' names written on the front covers in gold ink against a dark green Victorian botanical design and a gilded lamp of knowledge. All printed on pale-green cloth covers. A green more golden than celadon. Straddling the difference between jade and malachite.

Like the color of strong green tea.

Each volume has a tissue-protected frontsipiece engraved portrait of the author along with an introduction by editor Bliss Perry.

The books are worth reading, after you have held them in your hands for a while to appreciate what we miss when reading screens.

Many of these authors are no longer bestsellers. The political prescience and acuity of Lord Macaulay, for example, are set aside because they are so overshadowed by his colonial racism. Others, like W. M. Thackery, have simply gone out of style. This is a shame: Thackery is a deft and nuanced writer. Other writers -- Benjamin Franklin and Daniel Webster -- are cited more often than they are read.

And then there is Edgar Allan Poe, whom I hope will shops never go out of style. They all deserve a reader's attention because they have all made important contributions to the culture and history of the last couple of centuries.

The following volumes are included. I've listed some of the works included in each book.

Thomas Carlyle: Essay on Biography, Selected from Historical Sketches
Thomas DeQuincey: The Affliction of Childhood, The Pleasures of Opium, The Pains of Opium, On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth
Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard's Almanac, Autobiography, Necessary to Those That Would Be Rich
Washington Irving: The Stout Gentleman, Rip Van Winkle, Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Charles Lamb: Essays, Letters, and Verses
Abraham Lincoln: Springfield Speech, Gettysburg Address, Inaugural Address
Lord Macauley: Lord Byron, The Origin of the National Debt, The Task of the Modern Historian
Edgar Allan Poe: Fall of hte House of Usher, The Cask of Amontillado, The Gold Bug
W.M. Thackery The Book of Snobs, Roundabout Papers and Ballads
Daniel Webster: Representative Writings

Please check out my listings for other vintage and antique books at: https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/CockatoosInc/tools/listings/section:19047748,stats:true