A wonderfully whimsical Victorian first edition where Lewis Carroll’s imagination dances between nonsense, satire, and dreamlike fantasy.

Author: Lewis Carroll. Illustrated by Arthur Burdett Frost and Henry Holiday.
Title: Rhyme? And Reason?
Publisher: London: Macmillan and Co., 1883. First edition.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7.5 x 5 inches.
Pages: xii, 214 pages + publisher’s advertisements.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s green cloth binding decoratively stamped in gilt on the boards and spine, featuring charming central medallions designed after characters from the text. Light fading and gentle rubbing to the spine and extremities, with minor wear to corners, yet a handsome and well-preserved Victorian binding overall. All edges tinted yellow. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (tight, clean, and complete, with light occasional foxing and age toning as shown). A highly presentable copy with no major defects or markings observed.
Illustrations: Illustrated with sixty-five illustrations by Arthur B. Frost and nine by Henry Holiday, including numerous whimsical and finely detailed full-page and in-text illustrations throughout. Complete.

Estimate: (USD $350–500).

The book: A delightful first edition of Lewis Carroll’s Rhyme? And Reason?, one of the author’s most charming and imaginative later works. Published in 1883, the volume gathers together a remarkable assortment of poems, comic verses, literary parodies, and nonsense pieces, including the celebrated Phantasmagoria and the beloved masterpiece The Hunting of the Snark.

This Macmillan first edition is especially admired for its elegant minimalist green cloth binding and its rich illustrative program by Arthur B. Frost and Henry Holiday. Frost’s lively comic illustrations perfectly complement Carroll’s playful absurdity and linguistic inventiveness, while Holiday — famed for illustrating The Hunting of the Snark — contributes illustrations of exceptional Victorian fantasy character.

The author: Lewis Carroll (1832–1898), the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was one of the most influential writers of Victorian literature. A mathematician, logician, photographer, and master of literary nonsense, Carroll achieved immortality through works such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. His writings continue to inspire readers, artists, philosophers, and collectors worldwide.

The illustrators: Arthur Burdett Frost (1851–1928) was among the leading American illustrators of the late nineteenth century, celebrated for his humorous and highly animated pen-and-ink drawings. His work brought extraordinary vitality to Carroll’s whimsical universe.

Henry Holiday (1839–1927) was a distinguished English painter, stained-glass designer, and illustrator closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite circle. He is best remembered in literary history for his iconic illustrations to The Hunting of the Snark, considered among the finest visual interpretations of Carroll’s fantasy works.