Lord Elgin and the Marbles

First edition, first impression.  x, 312pp, with black and white plate illustrations and a map. Fawn cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on red relief on spine.  Cream endpapers.  8vo.  Cloth a little pushed at corners and spine ends, slightly soiled.  neat, clean, bright and tight within.  In a rubbed and bumped dust wrapper, slightly blown, with minor crumbling at spine ends, shelf worn.

The marble sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens have been a source of controversy ever since they arrived in England; current debate tends to focus on the ethics and morality of their removal and return to Greece, overlooking the story of the Marbles themselves and the extraordinary circumstances of their removal.  This volume, while primarily concerned with the marbles themselves, also reveals much of the seventh Lord Earl of Elgin: Elgin acquired the marbles at enormous expense for himself and in the face of great difficulties.  He was imprisoned by Napoleon, who wanted the Marbles for the Lourve in Paris, and was fiercely condemned in the poetry of Byron. In the end, his career was ruined and he spent the rest of his life in poverty.