Physical Properties of Enoch Arden

           The book described in this Omeka page is Lord Alfred Tennyson’s Enoch Arden. Rectangular  in shape, this book stands at about six and a half  inches in height by about four inches in width and about a quarter of an inch in thickness.The binding of the book is entirely covered in what seems to be leather or possibly felt, gold lettering makes up the book’s title and is the only thing that illustrates the book’s cover, without it, a reader would have no idea what book they were about to open. The backstrip of the book is especially thin and does not contain the title of the book. As is, the book is in good condition with little damage to any of the pages, while the pages themselves appear somewhat loose I would not describe them as loose leaf.
           The pages are well preserved; the paper appears to be machine-made, tan in color, with most pages having a smooth edge. The fore-edge, head and feet of the pages are tan in color. Opening the book to the first page, the reader is introduced to a green illustrated patter on both the recto and verso side of a page, besides the colorful pattern, the pages are blank. Following these pages, the reader is introduced to a title page with the title of the book appearing near the top of the page, below this is the title of the author and below this is an illustration followed by the name and location of the publication company. This information is contained by two borders, the outermost border being a thin straight line and the innermost border being a repeated illustration or stars, the borders are placed in the center of the page with about one inch of space between the outermost border and the edge of page.
            A textured stamp that reads “University of Victoria” is imprinted in the bottom right corner of the title page. Followed on the next page, an interesting handwritten note that was written by someone named “Rex” on “Xmas 1905.” As is, the entire handwritten sentiment appears to read, “Yodiar Fouwuie with love from Rex Xmas 1905.” Sadly, I was unable to find more about these people but believe that I did not read the handwritten note accurately. Following the page that has the handwritten note on it, the text of the book is first displayed to the reader. Interestingly, the entirety of book lacks illustrations and is minimal in its design.
            While Tennyson was not a fan of illustrating his work, the fact that this particular copy lacked any kind of illustrations leads me to believe that this copy of Enoch Arden was relatively cheap and was purchased as a gift for someone. As is, other factors which lead me to believe this copy of Enoch Arden was inexpensive are the book binding, the quality of the book, the lack of other poems attached to the book and, age of the book. Indeed, looking at the book binding it is clear that the cover is not hardbound but instead, made of cheap, less refined leather or felt which fits loosely around the edges of the pages it holds.           
            Although the quality of the book is good, the pages themselves appear somewhat loose and do not fit precisely into the book. As is, this leads me to believe that the book was originally made without using the best care to the binding process. Moreover, the lack of poems in the book leads me to suspect that this book was cheaper than a collection of Alfred Tennyson’s work because, there is less content. What’s more, the age of the book may also play a significant role in its price.
           Indeed, if one accepts that this particular book was made in the early 1900’s – an assumption based off of the handwritten note was made in 1905 – than it would be possible to assume that book was made around ten years after Tennyson’s death (which I believe negates posthumous profit) and decades after his peak of popularity.