POETICAL WORKS (TWO VOLUMES)

London: Reeves & Turner, 1886. Octavo, 572 pp; 580 pp. plus 14 page publisher's catalogue bound in the back of the second volume. Original light brown cloth with elaborate early Art Nouveau gilt pictorial covers featuring the subjects of many of Shelley's poems..heaven and earthly pleasures found in the sun, stars and wildflowers..two opposite corners occupied by a butterfly and bird in flight. Engraved portrait of the poet is the frontispiece of the first volume. This is the second edition of the highly regarded editorial work of H. Buxton Forman, with the notes of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Aside from some very minor rubbing, this is a fine set, with the small booksellers ticket of Clarke & Carruth, Boston on the front free endpaper.