Barrack-Room Ballads And Other Verses
Published by Methuen & Co: London 1895 8th Edition
"Barrack-Room Ballads And Other Verses is one of Rudyard Kipling's most celebrated collections of poetry, drawing heavily upon the language, experiences and attitudes of ordinary British soldiers serving throughout the Empire. Written in the distinctive vernacular for which Kipling became famous, the collection includes such enduring pieces as "Danny Deever," "Tommy," "Fuzzy-Wuzzy," "Gunga Din" and "Loot", alongside a substantial selection of his other verse. The poems range from humorous and boisterous barrack-room observations to darker treatments of warfare, death, loyalty and the often uneasy relationship between the soldier and the society he served.
First published in book form by Methuen in 1892, Barrack-Room Ballads was an immediate success and played an important role in establishing Kipling as one of the best-known English-language writers of his generation. This 1895 Eighth Edition, issued by Methuen & Co. of London as part of its Colonial Library, appeared while the work was still comparatively new and Kipling's literary reputation was rapidly expanding. The title page retains the characteristic illustration of the bugler, while Kipling's original preface acknowledges the periodicals in which a number of the poems had first appeared.
Presented here in attractive original red leather and red-board bindings, with the title, author, publisher and date impressed to the spine. The survival of this early 1895 edition in its period binding gives the volume considerable visual and historical appeal, particularly for collectors of Kipling, Victorian poetry and British military literature. A handsome late-Victorian edition of one of Kipling's defining works, published only three years after its first appearance."
