1881 Harper’s United States Readers Sixth Reader | Marcius Willson | Illustrated Victorian School Book | Rhetoric & Elocution

Harper’s United States Readers: The Sixth Reader by Marcius Willson, published by Harper & Brothers, New York, in 1881. This substantial Victorian educational work was designed to instruct students in rhetoric, criticism, elocution, oratory, poetry, and composition through carefully selected literary passages and essays.

Far more than a typical schoolbook, this volume contains an engaging collection of readings drawn from notable writers including Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Victor Hugo, Edmund Burke, Francis Bacon, Goldsmith, Byron, Webster, and others. Throughout are decorative typographic chapter headings, numerous engraved illustrations, and lessons devoted to metaphor, allegory, hyperbole, personification, eloquence, and the effective use of language.

The original publisher’s cloth binding remains attractive, and the interior is notably clean and well-preserved. The book offers a fascinating glimpse into late nineteenth-century American education and the teaching of literature, public speaking, and composition.

Condition: Very good condition for age and use. Binding is tight and sound. Original cloth boards with rubbing, scuffing, and wear to the leather spine ends and extremities. Gilt lettering on spine remains legible. Marbled edges faint from time. Pages are generally clean with light age toning typical of the period. A well-preserved example of this Victorian educational reader.

Size: 5” x 7 1/2”

A  increasingly uncommon nineteenth-century illustrated school reader, appealing to collectors of Americana, educational history, rhetoric, language arts, and Victorian books.