1896Best.-Nr. 981T49London: Ward Lock & Bowden Ltd. 1896-1898. Cloth. Very Good. 7.5" by 5.5". None. Two smart volumes from Ward's XIXth Century Classics being a collection of poetry from Matthew Arnold and episodic novel Cranford from Elizabeth Gaskell. Two volumes. From the XIXth Century Classics series. Edited by Clement King Shorter a British journalist and literary critic. With a portrait frontispiece to each volume. This set contains: Alaric of Rome and Other Poems 1896. A collection of the poetry of Matthew Arnold an English poet and cultural critic characterised as a sage writer. Containing his prize poem 'Alaric at Rome' offering a retelling of the Gothic leader Alaric I's sack of the city of Rome in 410 CE a landmark event symbolizing the decline of the Western Roman Empire. Cranford with Which is Included the Moorland Cottage 1898. An episodic novel set in a small English village dominated by women where men are conspicuously absent from social life. The narrative offers observations of the peculiar rituals customs and dynamics of the tight-knit community primarily focusing on the lives of its female inhabitants. Written by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell often referred to as Mrs Gaskell an English novelist biographer and short story writer. In the original full cloth binding. Externally smart with light rubbing to the extremities and the odd small mark to the boards. Internally firmly bound. Pages are very bright with light spotting to the fore-edge and endpapers. Age toning to the endpapers with a contemporary ink inscription to the front free endpaper. Very Good Ward, Lock & Bowden, Ltd. hardcover