Seven Pillars of Wisdom. A Triumph The Complete 1922 Text
Hampshire: Castle Hill Press, 1997. Three quarto volumes, quarter buckram and grey papered boards, with the publisher's slipcase. A fine set with the dust-jackets, as issued. Limited edition of 752 sets.
Aside from its typographic excellence, the Castle Hill edition of the 1922 text of Seven Pillars of Wisdom fulfils an important historical function. From the blurb: 'few people realise that the text published after Lawrence's death is an abridgement of a much fuller work, completed in 1922. The earlier Seven Pillars is one third longer, containing an additional 83,000 words - equivalent to about 170 pages. It was the longer text which convinced Bernard Shaw and others that Lawrence had written a masterpiece...' Other critics, including Robert Graves and E.M Forster, also preferred the unabridged 1922 text.
The two text volumes are accompanied by a third volume of plates, comprising 41 colour portraits from the original oil paintings, soft pastel and chalk portraits by William Roberts, Eric Kennington, Augustus John, Henry Lamb, R.M. Young and Frank Dobson. Additionally, original photographs from the Arabian campaign have been reproduced, containing much of both military and ethnographic interest. O'Brien A034a. Item #4133
Price (AUD): $1,750.00