The Great Sieges of History a new edition including The Siege of Paris. Unknown author. Pub. by George Routledge and sons with no date. However the front blank fly page has an old previous owner's bookplate indicating the year 1896-Johannesburg, given as a 1st prize win in algebra.
A very nice book with a beautiful red and gold embossed cover and binding. Pages edges are gilt.
There are 106 sieges covered. Some illustrations. Just to mention a few that impressed me personally are:
Abydos, Alexandria, Antioch, Babylon, Bagdad, Byzantium, Carthage, Castillon, Corinth, Damascus, Delhi, Gaza, Grenada, Jerusalem, Nineveh, Troy, Thebes, Rhodes, and many many more. I will quote here the first paragraph of the first page of this book:
"Of all the collisions between the members of the human race for the furtherance of ambition, the maintenance of liberty, or the assertion of disputed rights, we consider the prominent sieges of history to be the most interesting and instructive. We know of no situation in which the higher virtues have been put to a severer test; in which courage, firmness, endurance, patriotism, fidelity, humanity, have shone with purer and more unmitigated lustre. In the pages we are about to lay before our readers will be found accounts of actions and sufferings of which the uninitiated in history can scarcely suppose their fellow-men to be capable: not brilliant actions of short-lived devotion performed before applauding multitudes, not torments endured with hopes of celestial recompense, but protracted, continuos exertions, amidst privations, disease, famine, and death in every hideous shape, prompted by love of country, or fidelity to a cause honestly embraced".
This is a great book. 742pp.
Condition. The front cover seems to have some slight damage to a small portion. My guess is that somebody tried to "lift" a portion of the Heraldic shield to make a copy or stamp. Blue ink was used and some paper scratched off. However it sort of looks o.k.
The top corner of the bonding has some minor tears. Usual rubbing and bumping. Otherwise in good condition. Many days of great reading and a wonderful book for reference.
Buyer pays $3.50 for media shipping. Insurance is optional if requested at cost.
