Item #06543 The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense. W. S. GILBERT, SANGORSKI, binders SUTCLIFFE.
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense
The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense

The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense [&] More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense

London: John Camden Hotten [&] George Routledge and Sons, 1869. Item #06543

“Much Sound and Little Sense”
The Cornerstone of Gilbert’s Comic Genius

GILBERT, W.S. The “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense. With illustrations by the author. London: John Camden Hotten, 1869. First edition. Small octavo (7 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches; 184 x 114 mm.). ix, [1,], [11]-222, [4, ads] pp.

[Together with:]

GILBERT, W.S. More “Bab” Ballads. Much Sound and Little Sense. With illustrations by the author. London: George Routledge and Sons, [1873]. First edition. Small octavo. viii, [13]-224, [4, ads] pp.

Uniformly bound ca. 1930 by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in full red crushed levant morocco. Covers with double gilt fillet borders, the inner fillet incorporating small gilt corner tools. Spines with five raised bands, decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments. Gilt board edges and wide gilt turn-ins, cockerel endpapers, all edges gilt. Original green cloth covers bound in at rear. Joints expertly and unobtrusively repaired. Housed in a fleece-lined, cockerel board slipcase by the same bindery. A very handsome set.

The two volumes of the Bab Ballads - issued in 1869 and 1873 - form the foundation of W. S. Gilbert’s enduring reputation as the supreme humorist of the Victorian stage. First published in Fun magazine under the pseudonym “Bab,” these verses, accompanied by Gilbert’s own distinctive illustrations, marry absurdity with precision, skewering the pretensions of class, bureaucracy, and Victorian propriety with a wit that remains remarkably modern.
More than merely comic verse, The Bab Ballads constitute the imaginative wellspring of the later collaborations with Arthur Sullivan. Characters, situations, and even entire narrative frameworks reappear in the Savoy operas, including H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance, making these volumes essential not only to literary collections but also to the history of English musical theatre.

A cornerstone work of Victorian humor, here in an elevated and highly desirable format.

Price: $2,500.00

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