The Bab Ballads by W. S. Gilbert. With Illustrations by the Author (HQ38)

Published 1927: Hardcover / Very Good Condition / Illustrated throughout

Original red embossed cloth with gilt titles and decoration on the cover and spine. 190 + very clean and bright pages. Boards slightly rubbed and faded with time consistent with age. Overall a well preserved compact pocket-size. Scarce! (HQ38)

Postage €4.00.
An Post prepaid postage envelopes within the Republic of Ireland, with no weight restrictions from €6.95.

The Bab Ballads is a collection of light verse by W. S. Gilbert, illustrated with his own comic drawings. The poems take their name from Gilbert’s childhood nickname. He later began to sign his illustrations "Bab".

The Bab Ballads, named after Gilbert's childhood nickname, "laid the foundation of his fame on the stage and... became the source of some of his operatic plots" in Gilbert & Sullivan productions.

In these poems, Gilbert "showed his ingenious metrical skill and sketched out his fantasy world, turning the odd into the ordinary, calling it 'Topsy-Turvydom'. The ballads became the favourite literature of sailors, soldiers, lawyers, doctors" (ibid.)

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. [Google Books]