Publisher's advertisement: 2 p. (at end).

Insertions available - typescript letter which is typed copy of MS letter tipped into book, dated 14/4/[18]93 from George Moore with soem verses. See Miscellaneous insertions removed from the LO Collection] in the NLI catalogue.

Original black cloth, decorated with skull, crossbones, lyre and vines in gilt on upper board, a.e.g. Rebacked at an early date, with the original backstrip laid down, with attendant reinforcement at endsheet gutters. Early cloth slipcase.

First edition of the author's first book (the existence of the chimerical Worldliness having long eluded reliable confirmation). This copy is the variant with all edges gilt (no priority established). From the library of collector Thomas Hutchinson, with his book label. Tipped in is a very good literary autograph letter, signed, (3pp, 8vo, 5 Kings Bench Walk, Temple, 14 April, 1893) from Moore to an unidentified recipient (presumably Hutchinson), writing out three stanzas of verse from Moore's "The Strike at Arlingford" at the recipient's request, complimenting his correspondent's poetry and berating his own, including this book: "I am sorry that you possess my earliest literary sin. The ideal man of letters ought only to publish three or four books, and to spend ten years upon each. I am entirely out of sympathy with this scribbling century . . . I have long since given up writing verse; but the other day I had to write some for my play 'The Strike at Arlingford'. 'The night's as soft as a girl / And the old trees gently incline / To her...' ...I am afraid the verse I write now is no better than the verse I wrote when a boy ... But since you have the wretched volume, I shall feel obliged if you'll copy out the poem entitled 'A Ballad of a Lost Soul' and send it to me. . . ." FLOWERS OF PASSION was never reprinted and according to Hone (p. 69), following highly unfavorable reviews and on the advice of a friend, Mrs. William Rossetti, Moore withdrew the book, which had been published at his expense. Five of the poems are reprinted in Pagan Poems, three in revised form (see Gilcher p. 2). Gilcher A1

Physical description: [i], ii, 114, [2] p. ; 20 cm. (4to)

Citations/References: Gilcher A1