Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

What, if any, memorable or special book have you ever gotten as a present? Birthday or otherwise. What made it so notable? The person who gave it? The book itself? The “gift aura?”

A few years ago, when I visited my grandmother’s home, I went down to the basement with my mother to look at the shelves of stored books that are kept there. A few minutes later, while we browsed, my grandmother came down to give me a book that she had been holding onto to give me. The book that she gave me as a gift was an early issue of Dante’s The Vision; or, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise with illustrations, translated by Rev. H. F. Cary and published in 1814. When I first held the book in my hands as my own possession, I stared down at the guided green and red cloth cover worn and darkened by age and I was stunned that something so wonderful was now mine. What my grandmother had given me is book almost 200 years old, a classic of Medieval and Christian literature. As a history major and a bibliophile, the pleasure was doubled. I can’t put into enough words how much I love Medieval literature, as I was contemplating making that my major focus, though I ended up with Roman history in the end.

I love everything about the yellow pages, the dusty smell and the fragile pages that I’m afraid to turn for fear or the damage I could do. I keep it in my one tiny china cabinet where it can stay safe and protected, away from hands or accidental damage. I’ve seen reprinted copies from about 40 years later go for about $75 to $100, but I have no intention of selling this book. It’s my book pride and joy. I can’t thank my grandmother enough for it.

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