BALLADS.
London: Chatto & Windus, 1890. Original very dark blue cloth, beveled.
First English Edition (published five days after the American) of Stevenson's third volume of verse -- consisting of two long ballads about RLS's former home of Scotland, two about his new home of Samoa, plus "Christmas at Sea" in between.
The theme of all the poems is, essentially, "ye maun dree your weird" (you have to accept destiny): for these are all tales of revenge, sacrifice and fate... "Christmas at Sea" lends the whole collection a psychological twist, with its narrator aboard a storm-tossed ship on Christmas Day imagining his parents at home sitting by the fire: 'But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold, Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old'." [RLS Website].
This is a near-fine copy (just a bit of rubbing). Beinecke 532; Princeton 46A. Item #15763
Price: $175.00