Short Studies on Great Subjects by Froude Complete in 4 Books Dated 1894/5

Complete in 4 volumes this full calf bound set has 6 compartments to the spines formed by 5 raised bands which are gilt decorated including the title labels and there is a gilt border around the covers and the edges of the boards are also gilt decorated. The pages edges are marbled as are the end papers. This new edition was published by Longmans, Green and co of London and printed by Richard Clay and Sons of Bungay and London. Volume I has a schools prize presentation label to the front free endpaper awarding this set as an Honour Prize to Mr G E W Woolsey in December 1895 by Norwich Law Students Society.

The author's preface to Volume IV, written in Onslow Gardens in 1882, reads:-

The present volume concludes the series which I have called 'Short Studies on Great Subjects.' The topics discussed are not, indeed, all great, and some are insignificant; but I selected the title on the account of the unity of purpose which is present throughout. The Essays have been written at intervals, as occasion or my own general work suggested, during the last thirty years, and they contain my thoughts, cast in various forms, on the problems with which the present generation has been perplexed. We have lived through a period of change - change spiritual, change moral, social and political. The foundation of our most serious convictions have been broken up; and the disintegration of opinion is so rapid that wise men and foolish are equally ignorant where the close of this wanting century will find us. We are embarked in a current which bears us forward independent of our own wills and indifferent whether we submit or resist; but each of us is sailing in a boat of his own, which, as he is hurried on, he can guide or leave to drift. The observations and experiences of a single voyager who is drawing near the end of his journey may have an interest for others who are floating down the same river, and are alike unable to conjecture wither they are bound.

James Anthony Froude FRSE (23 April 1818 – 20 October 1894) was an English historian, novelist, biographer and editor of Fraser’s Magazine. Froude intended to become a clergyman, but doubts about the doctrines of the Anglican Church, published in his scandalous 1849 novel The Nemesis of Faith, drove him to abandon his religious career. Froude turned to writing history, becoming one of the best known historians of his time for his History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada. (Wikipedia).

Internally there is general rippling, foxing and age toning to the pages. The paper joint to the hinge adjacent the title page of volume I is splitting but the stitching remains intake. The contents are tightly bound. Externally there is some rubbing, a little scuffing to a couple of corners and there are some marks noticeably to the top front edge of volume IV as shown in the main photo.

The books measured 18.5cms high and are some 12.9cms deep. Whilst there is slight variance in the widths the total overall length of the run of all 4 volumes is 11.8cms.