Culture and Anarchy; An Essay in Political and Social Criticism, by Matthew Arnold, 1889

Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy is a cornerstone of Victorian social criticism, first published in 1869. In this influential series of essays, Arnold argues for the importance of cultural refinement and moral insight as a unifying force in society. Confronting the industrial age’s social divisions, he famously divides English society into the Barbarians, the Philistines, and the Populace, advocating a middle path grounded in education, beauty, and order. The 1889 “Popular Edition” made his ideas more widely available to a posthumous readership and helped entrench the book’s place in British intellectual life.

Culture and Anarchy; An Essay in Political and Social Criticism, by Matthew Arnold.

Published by Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1889. Bound by 'Stoakley late Hawes' – George Frederick Stoakley, successor to John Bird Hawes, operating in Cambridge during this period.

A good (plus) copy of this hardback volume bound with leather spine with raised bands and gilt titles, and leather corners. With marbled paper over boards. With some scuffing and bumping, and worn to top and tail of marbled paper at edges. Matching marbled endpapers and gilt top edge to text block. All soundly bound.

Text is bright and clean throughout, with just some light marbled offsetting to endpapers. At the lower edge of the text block there are a couple of areas where the book has taken a knock, resulting in some marginal indentations and edge tears (not encroaching into text). With a few contemporary pencil annotations.

Language: English.

xxxvii + 166pp.

Dimensions: approximately 186mm high x 129mm wide x 19mm deep.

Unpacked weight approximately 354g.