Folio Archives 204: Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff by Thomas Jefferson Hogg 1952

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Folio Archives 204: Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff by Thomas Jefferson Hogg 1952

1wcarter
Editado: Fev 5, 2021, 3:41 am

Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff by Thomas Jefferson Hogg 1952

Hogg was an intimate of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and wrote this novel when in 1812 when he was only 20. It has seldom been published, and except for a sycophantic review by Shelley, would probably have disappeared into obscurity. Quite why it was chosen for publication as one of the early books in the Folio Society oeuvre is a mystery.

The sensuous story is the autobiography of a fictional Prince who has a very fortunate life, despite beginning it as an orphan, with highly unlikely adventures with the fair sex across Europe from Switzerland to Turkey and back to England. It is a light, brief, entertaining and a delightfully easy book to read.

There is a 16 page scholarly introduction by Sidney Scott (with numerous footnotes), which considering the 121 page length of the novel itself seems slightly excessive. At the back of the book, Shelly’s ten page review for the magazine ‘’Critical review’’ in 1814 is reproduced.

There are eight delightful full page engravings by Douglas Percy Bliss. The book is quarter bound in beautiful dark green buckram with marbled paper boards which is hidden by a dust-jacket cover printed with one of Bliss’ engravings in pink and black. FS books did not come in a slipcase at this time.

The endpapers are plain white and the book is a petite 22.7x13.5cm. The page tops are stained red. The spine title runs from bottom to top.





Back of dust-jacket


Dust-jacket turn-ins




















































An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.

2MobyRichard
Fev 4, 2021, 10:58 pm

>1 wcarter:

Didn't they also use to doubt Casanova's sexual adventures?

3ranbarnes
Fev 5, 2021, 2:35 am

I have never noticed that dust jackets were labelled top down, whereas book spine was labelled bottom up before. Was this normal at the time?

4SimB
Fev 5, 2021, 3:12 am

>3 ranbarnes: The Tragedy of Macbeth published 1951 was at least another one