Item #69601 Cain, a Dramatic Mystery in Three Acts by Lord Byron; Translated into French verse by d'Olivet (1823), Fabre; (later) Done into English by Nayan Louise Redfield. Fabre - Translated into French. Later translated into D'OLIVET, Nayán Louise Redfield.
Cain, a Dramatic Mystery in Three Acts by Lord Byron; Translated into French verse by d'Olivet (1823), Fabre; (later) Done into English by Nayan Louise Redfield

Cain, a Dramatic Mystery in Three Acts by Lord Byron; Translated into French verse by d'Olivet (1823), Fabre; (later) Done into English by Nayan Louise Redfield

New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons / The Knickerbocker Press, 1923. First edition. Hardcover. Large octavo. xii + 265pp, ipp advert. Original navy publisher's cloth, gilt title, etc. to spine, gilt device to boards, top edge gilt, b&w illustrations. French author, composer and hermeticist, Antoine Fabre d'Olivet (1767-1825) is probably best known for his famous exploration of the mystical and symbolic ancestry of Hebrew words and letters "The Hebraic Tongue Restored" (1815). In that he used his vast knowledge of a variety of languages including, Arabic, Chaldaic, Greek, Sanskrit, Samaritan, and Syriac, to trace language back to what he thought were its symbolic origins, and claimed to have uncovered what might be termed a proto-Hebraic language, that was the tongue of the ancient mysteries, and mastery of which was the key to understanding the ancient cosmogonies. The work became highly influential and was embraced by European occultists, including Eliphas Lévi, Papus and Édouard Schuré. In this volume, written in his final years, d'Olivet turns his attention to Lord Byron's retelling of the Biblical tale of Cain's murder of his brother, Abel. In his commentary "d'Olivet argued against Byron's concept of evil. To him, Cain and Abel are allegories of Will and Providence, and their story that of the fall of humanity from its primordial perfection" (Joscelyn Godwin). Contents: Translator's foreword by Nayan Louise Redfield; Letter to Lord Byron by Fabre d'Olivet; Notice by Fabre d'Olivet; Lord Byron's Preface; Remarks upon Lord Byron's preface by Fabre d'Olivet; Cain, a mystery by Lord Byron; Remarks; philosophical and critical by Fabre d'Olivet. Cloth lightly rubbed and darkened, a few very faint marks from handling, spine darkened, some chafing to top edges of both boards, corners and spine ends lightly bumped and chafed, page edges a bit darkened, and pages lightly toned but internally clean and unmarked. A tight, clean better than VG copy (no dust jacket). Item #69601

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