Beowulf
By Seamus Heaney
 
First edition, first impression: London: Faber and Faber, 1999. Signed by the author to the title page.
 
Octavo. Original dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt with orange endpapers and paste-downs. With the original pictorial dust jacket designed by Pentagram using a painting by Barrie Cooke, priced £14.99 to upper flap. This copy additionally retains the original Waterstones Booksellers Deansgate, Manchester promotional band, printed SIGNED FIRST EDITION.
 
A near fine copy: the binding square and firm, cloth clean and unfaded, the gilt bright; contents fresh and unmarked with just some pushing to spine ends and a knock and unobtrusive white marking to top corner of lower board fore-edge. Signed by Seamus Heaney in black ink on the title page.
 
The dust jacket is near fine, with the slighest hint of wear to spine ends, but no tears or loss; some of the often-encountered fading to the spine panel, but colours remain strong otherwise.
 
Heaney’s Beowulf is one of the signal literary publications of the late twentieth century, a translation that reanimated the Old English epic for a modern readership and became an instant classic. Awarded the Whitbread Book of the Year on publication, it remains the definitive modern rendering of the poem. Signed examples retaining contemporary bookseller issue bands are particularly desirable.