A genuinely beautiful mid-century illustrated Tennyson edition.

This volume gathers Alfred Lord Tennyson’s major poems alongside delicate black-and-white illustrations that sit somewhere between Pre-Raphaelite romanticism and storybook engraving. 

The poems feel emotionally modern, even beneath the Victorian architecture. There's familiar motifs of exhaustion, longing, grief, national anxiety, romantic idealism slipping into melancholy. In Memoriam especially reads almost like someone trying to out-argue despair through rhythm alone.

First illustrated edition originally 1912, this copy reprinted 1943. Decorative blue cloth binding with gilt detailing and illustrated plates throughout. Some age toning and light wear consistent with wartime-era production, but overall very attractive condition.