Navy cloth binding with silver on the spine and front board.

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For conditions, please view our photographs. An original  book from the library gathered by the famous Cambridge Don, computer scientist, food and wine connoisseur, Jack Arnold LANG.

A favourite book of Jack’s family: controversial and real snap shot in time.

James Justinian Morier (15 August 1782 – 19 March 1849) was a British diplomat and author noted for his novels about the Qajar dynasty in Iran, most famously for the Hajji Baba series. With his knowledge of Eastern life and manners, Morier wrote several entertaining novels. The most popular were The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan (1824) and its sequel, The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan in England (1828). The former novel is a sort of Gil Blas set in Persia. The Persian minister to England is said to have protested on behalf of his government against its satire and manner of speaking. There followed Zohrab the Hostage (1832), Ayesha the Maid of Kars (1834), and The Mirza (1841), all full of brilliant description, character-painting, and delicate satire, and several others of lesser quality.

The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan has been reprinted many times, with bibliophile editions from Random House in 1937 designed and illustrated by Cyrus Leroy Baldridge and from The Heritage Press in 1947 illustrated by Honoré Guilbeau. Some later editions have been prefaced by Walter Scott’s generous appreciation of Morier’s work, first published in the Quarterly Review in January 1829. A Persian translation of the book was produced by Douglas Craven Phillott.