Paradise Lost (The Oxford Library of the World's Greatest Books)

[18] 338pp. 31 full page illustrations by Gustav Dore. Bound in full mid-blue leather, four raised bands on spine, all edges and decorations in 22 karat gold. Rich marbled endpapers. Silk ribbon marker. Smyth-sewn binding. Printed on acid-neutral archival paper (which means the pages will not brown with time). The engravings in this volume were reproduced from the deluxe folio edition of Milton's Paradise Lost published by Cassell in 1866. The Franklin Library was one of the leading publishers of great books in fine bindings in the 20th century. Made between 1981 and 1985 the Oxford/Franklin volumes are stunning and outstanding for their production qualities. Oxford University Press specially chose the Franklin Library to design and produce its World's Great Books series because of its unsurpassed skill in achieving a premium-quality product: each of the Oxford books was to be 'a wonder', in the finest traditions of bookbinding. Books in the World's Greatest Books series were produced as limited editions (as were all Franklin Library books, although in some cases it's not known how many were included in each limited edition), and this volume has been described as 'impossibly rare' (GOHD Books of Singapore). A truly, gorgeously handsome volume, designed to become an heirloom.