The Family Shakspeare, In Ten Volumes, in which nothing is added to the original text; but those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family

Ten 12mo volumes, each contemporary full calf, with margins of boards ruled in gilt; spines ornately tooled in five compartments, and lettering pieces to second and fourth compartments of each volume; marbled edges and endpapers; ribbon markers; pp. xix + (i) + 313, (iv) + 320, (iv) + 354, (iv) + 335, (iv) + 391, (iv) + 309, (iv) + 346, (iv) + 418, (iv) + 327, (iv) + 369. Inscribed on second blank: "Barbara Anne Robson. From her Brothers, and Sisters, On her birthday, July 22. 1828." Loosely inserted is a handwritten romantic poem on a single folded sheet, on the reverse side of which is written, in the same hand: "To Barbara Anne Robson / With Shakespeare's Dramatic Works from her / Brothers + Sisters on her twenty first brithday, / July 22, 1828." Light wear to covers; portion of spines of 6th and 8th volumes a little scuffed; some light foxing. All volumes in very good condition. The contents are as follows: Volume I: Tempest, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night; Volume II: Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer-night's Dream, Love's Labour Lost; Volume III: Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, All's Well That Ends Well, Taming of the Shrew; Volume IV: Winter's Tale, Comedy of Errors, Macbeth, King John; Volume V: King Richard II, First Part of Henry IV, Second Part of King Henry IV, King Henry V; Volume VI: First Part of King Henry VI, Second Part of King Henry VI, Third Part of King Henry VI; Volume VII: King Richard III, King Henry VIII, Troilus and Cressida; Volume VIII: Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra; Volume IX: Cymbeline, Titus Andronicus, King Lear; Volume X: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello. Thomas Bowdler, whose expurgated Shakespeare is today viewed as a charming illustration of the mores of his time, intended as it was to provide a version of the Bard's works more suitable for women and children, nevertheless did more than perhaps anyone else to make Shakespeare socially acceptable and available to young readers. Barbara Anne Robson's attractive fourth edition of the Family Shakspeare was produced in the year of Bowdler's death.