book-aesthete: Zuleika Dobson Or an Oxford Love Story. With a Foreword and Illustrations by Osbert Lancaster. Max Beerbohm. (Shakespeare Head Press.) Oxford. 1975  Description: 475/750 COPIES signed by the artist, 2 colourprinted plates, reproductions of 5 pencil character sketches by Beerbohm within preliminaries, initial letter at the beginning of each chapter and the shoulder-titles printed in dark cerise, the title-page printed in black and cerise, pp. xvi, 190, sm.folio, original qtr. Oxford-blue morocco, gilt lettered backstrip with gilt blocked Lancaster drawing, ‘Bullingdon’ blue and white vertically striped board sides, t.e.g., blue cotton-marker, sunned board slipcase with Lancaster illustration and title, near fine ————————————That old bell, presage of a train, had just sounded through Oxford station; and the undergraduates who were waiting there, gay figures in tweed or flannel, moved to the margin of the platform and gazed idly up the line. Young and careless, in the glow of the afternoon sunshine, they struck a sharp note of incongruity with the worn boards they stood on, with the fading signals and grey eternal walls of that antique station, which, familiar to them and insignificant, does yet whisper to the tourist the last enchantments of the Middle Age. -opening paragraph I know this has nothing to do with me being in Oxford, but it sort of does… because I have to admit that 1) I’m a book junkie, 2) I love Blackwells, 3) I collect rare books (and if given the chance would go broke trying to afford this — gosh 225 pounds!), 4) this is actually on my to-read list, and 5) I feel a connection to that last phrase: yet whisper to the tourist the last enchantments of the Middle Age.  (Because every morning as I strolled down Manor street into the gray-blue skies and pearl yellow buildings, well, I fell in love with a place that was but borrowed. And just looking at pictures I fall more in love, just imagining the history in every cobblestone path I have yet to walk, and every gate I have yet to cross…) This is a 1975 reprint of the book. (And even if none of the above is important to you, just looking at it is a pleasure, isn’t it?) But originally Beerbohm wrote this novel in 1911, and is supposed to be just an enchanting novel that bears witness to the ways in which a simple, almost silly plot can enchant from the beauty of language alone!  So, New Year’s resolution? - I’m reading this next term in Oxford. I just have to to! I mean, I really do: Zuleika is a professional magician. A female professional magician wondering the streets of Oxford, visiting a grandparent, who is a warden at a college, and just flirting and being showered with love and silly ridiculous confessions from the Duke of Dorset. Of course I have to read this. I have to read it at night, sitting on the steps of the Bod, or the Rad Cam, while enjoying a delicious burger from the awesome Chez cart off Turl Street.  Will someone please hold me to this? 

book-aesthete:

Zuleika Dobson
Or an Oxford Love Story. With a Foreword and Illustrations by Osbert Lancaster.
Max Beerbohm. (Shakespeare Head Press.) Oxford. 1975 

Description: 475/750 COPIES signed by the artist, 2 colourprinted plates, reproductions of 5 pencil character sketches by Beerbohm within preliminaries, initial letter at the beginning of each chapter and the shoulder-titles printed in dark cerise, the title-page printed in black and cerise, pp. xvi, 190, sm.folio, original qtr. Oxford-blue morocco, gilt lettered backstrip with gilt blocked Lancaster drawing, ‘Bullingdon’ blue and white vertically striped board sides, t.e.g., blue cotton-marker, sunned board slipcase with Lancaster illustration and title, near fine

————————————
That old bell, presage of a train, had just sounded through Oxford station; and the undergraduates who were waiting there, gay figures in tweed or flannel, moved to the margin of the platform and gazed idly up the line. Young and careless, in the glow of the afternoon sunshine, they struck a sharp note of incongruity with the worn boards they stood on, with the fading signals and grey eternal walls of that antique station, which, familiar to them and insignificant, does yet whisper to the tourist the last enchantments of the Middle Age.
-opening paragraph

I know this has nothing to do with me being in Oxford, but it sort of does… because I have to admit that 1) I’m a book junkie, 2) I love Blackwells, 3) I collect rare books (and if given the chance would go broke trying to afford this — gosh 225 pounds!), 4) this is actually on my to-read list, and 5) I feel a connection to that last phrase: yet whisper to the tourist the last enchantments of the Middle Age. 

(Because every morning as I strolled down Manor street into the gray-blue skies and pearl yellow buildings, well, I fell in love with a place that was but borrowed. And just looking at pictures I fall more in love, just imagining the history in every cobblestone path I have yet to walk, and every gate I have yet to cross…)

This is a 1975 reprint of the book. (And even if none of the above is important to you, just looking at it is a pleasure, isn’t it?) But originally Beerbohm wrote this novel in 1911, and is supposed to be just an enchanting novel that bears witness to the ways in which a simple, almost silly plot can enchant from the beauty of language alone! 

So, New Year’s resolution? - I’m reading this next term in Oxford. I just have to to! I mean, I really do: Zuleika is a professional magician. A female professional magician wondering the streets of Oxford, visiting a grandparent, who is a warden at a college, and just flirting and being showered with love and silly ridiculous confessions from the Duke of Dorset. Of course I have to read this. I have to read it at night, sitting on the steps of the Bod, or the Rad Cam, while enjoying a delicious burger from the awesome Chez cart off Turl Street. 

Will someone please hold me to this? 

4 months ago

  1. theauto-asphyxiatinghierophant reblogged this from book-aesthete
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  5. charlotteisacake reblogged this from rosenhosen and added:
    Dude, my mom gave this...me for Christmas! I am reading it now. Hilarious.
  6. rosenhosen reblogged this from book-aesthete and added:
    read this. Maybe Charlotte already has.
  7. fridarwen reblogged this from book-aesthete
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  12. oxfordconfessions reblogged this from book-aesthete and added:
    I know this has nothing to do with me being in Oxford, but it sort of does… because I have to admit that 1) I’m
  13. violet-ianthe reblogged this from book-aesthete and added:
    don’t know what...dreadful fate awaits them!
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