THE SATYRICON OF PETRONIUS ARBITER; In the Translation Attributed to OSCAR WILDE with an Introduction / Illustrations by Allen Lewis
New York: Covici Friede, Publishers, 1934. Allen Lewis. American Reissue of the 1927 British limited edition in one volume with new illustrations. Cloth. 8vo (8 5/8" x 6" x 1 3/4"), orange cloth with black lettering and B&W coin of Caesar on front cover, Introduction by "S.W." [pp.lxxxv]; illustrated with frontispiece of Petronius and 5 B&W woodcuts by Allen Lewis; archival mylar-protected pictorial dust jacket (unclipped) with woodcut of a dancing woman by Lewis; The Fragments [pp.359-378]; "Wilde's Introduction" [pp.379-380], 381-408 pages. Near Fine / Very Good +. Item #8091
Tight, bright, clean copy. UNCOMMON in this condition. Contains the entire corrected text plus Fragments and Wilde's Introduction. Uniform moderate age-toning. Plates are clean, bright, and unfoxed though toned. Bright, clean dust jacket (unclipped) with small chips at its corners.
Introduced, Corrected and Edited by Oscar Wilde, who was an admirer of Gaius Petronius' Arbiter's, Satyricon. [The author MAY have been Titus Petronius Niger {c. AD 27 - 66, whose suicide was ordered by Nero.]
This now somewhat fragmentary work was a colloquial Latin picaresque "novel" with homoerotic byplay involving Encolpius, an "unusually repulsive and degenerate Hero Narrator" who has a difficult time keeping Giton, his teenage boy-lover and other excitements such as the banquet of Trimalchio.
Allen Lewis (1873 - 1957) from Mobile, Alabama, later studied with Jean-Léon Gerome at the Ecole des Beaus Arts in Paris. In 1900, his work, along with Whistler and Pennell, was accepted in the Paris Salon. After returning to New York in 1902, he became a member of Alfred Steiglitz's circle and was widely appreciated for his engravings and color woodcuts.
Price: $45.00