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Octavo

noun
(pl. octavos)
1.
The size of a book whose pages are made by folding a sheet of paper three times to form eight leaves.  Synonyms: 8vo, eightvo.






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"Octavo" Quotes from Famous Books



... edition, and he might have read the book in Philadelphia; in the mean time he would try to recall the circumstances more clearly to his mind; for so long as he had a doubt, he could not swear to the fact. He knew it was not the octavo edition, at Greatwood, that he had been reading, for he distinctly remembered the portrait of Steele in the frontispiece, and Addison's papers on the Paradise Lost, which he had been reading; that very portrait, and those papers, were contained ...
— Elinor Wyllys - Vol. I • Susan Fenimore Cooper

... of every river in England, he very naturally becomes tedious. Satiety is the bane of the amorist, and of worse than he. Casanova had that in front of him when he set out to be immoral, on ne peut plus, in seven volumes octavo. There simply were not enough vices to go round. He ended, therefore, by being a dull as well as a dirty dog. "Take back your bonny Mrs. Behn," said Walter Scott's great-aunt to him after a short inspection, "and if you will take my advice, put her ...
— In a Green Shade - A Country Commentary • Maurice Hewlett

... ("Glossary") notes the expression so late as in the very odd novel by T. Amory, called "John Bunde," where a young lady declares, after an alarm, "that she would never go into naked bed on board ship again." Octavo edition, vol. i. ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... portfolio; periodical, serial, magazine, ephemeris, annual, journal. paper, bill, sheet, broadsheet[obs3]; leaf, leaflet; fly leaf, page; quire, ream [subdivisions of a book] chapter, section, head, article, paragraph, passage, clause; endpapers, frontispiece; cover, binding. folio, quarto, octavo; duodecimo[obs3], sextodecimo[obs3], octodecimo[obs3]. encyclopedia; encompilation[obs3]. [collection of books] library, bibliotheca[obs3]. press &c. (publication) 531. [complete description] definitive work, treatise, comprehensive treatise (dissertation) ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... and a commentator, and the present work furnishes abundant evidence of his linguistic attainments and his perseverance; but it is somewhat doubtful whether it will add to his fame as a critic and a theologian. In these three portly octavo volumes— extending to upwards of 1800 pages of closely printed matter—he tries to convince his readers that a number of the silliest productions to be found among the records of antiquity, are the remains of an apostolic Father. He tells us, in his preface, that the subject has ...
— The Ignatian Epistles Entirely Spurious • W. D. (William Dool) Killen

... which the superior shrewdness of {405} Uncle Sam deems worthy of reprinting. Southey's Chronicle of the Cid, which was published by Longman in 1808, and not since printed in England, was brought out in a very handsome octavo form at Lowell, U. S., in 1846. And this, the "first American edition," as it is called on the title-page, can be readily procured from the booksellers in London; whereas the English original is not to be met with. In like manner, Macaulay's ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853 • Various

... could see nothing that I would offer with pleasure to an intelligent, well-informed girl nine years old. I began to be discouraged. The hour of dining was come. 'But I will search a little longer,' I persevered. At last I found it. I found the very thing I sought. It is contained in two volumes octavo, handsomely bound, and with prints and registers. It is a work of fancy, but replete with instruction and amusement. I must present it ...
— Famous Americans of Recent Times • James Parton

... as it frequently happens, took an inadequate measure of his growing work. The remainder of the first period has filled two volumes in quarto, being the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes of the octavo edition.] ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 1 • Edward Gibbon

... trade have looked shy at him since that exhibition. Since that time, however, he has contrived means of giving to the world a collected edition of all his poems, and advanced to the front of the stage with a thick octavo in each hand, all about himself and other Incomprehensibilities. We had forgot that he was likewise a contributor to Mr. Southey's Omniana, where the Editor of the Edinburgh Review is politely denominated an "ass," and then became himself a writer in ...
— Famous Reviews • Editor: R. Brimley Johnson

... Marius' chamber, remained apart near the door. He had under his arm, a package which bore considerable resemblance to an octavo volume enveloped in paper. The enveloping paper was of a greenish hue, ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... ceased to build such houses before the beginning of the present century. I quote Mr. Morgan's description at length, because his book is out of print and hard to obtain. It ought to be republished, and in octavo, like his Ancient Society, of which it ...
— The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) - with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest • John Fiske

... codex, though each leaf might have only one fold, and thus technically be considered as a folio, the actual shape of it was nearly square, hence its name of codex quadratus. When other forms of books, such as octavo, duo-decimo, etc., came into use, it was in consequence of the increased number of foldings. The gatherings, originally quaternions or quires, became different, and those who undertake to examine MSS. with respect to their ...
— Illuminated Manuscripts • John W. Bradley

... of his kingdom as in foreign affairs. M. Leopold Delisle, one of the most learned French academicians, and one of the most accurate in his knowledge, has devoted a volume of more than seven hundred pages octavo to a simple catalogue of the official acts of Philip Augustus, and this catalogue contains a list of two thousand two hundred and thirty-six administrative acts of all kinds, of which M. Delisle confines himself to merely setting forth the title and object. Search has been made in this long table ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume II. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... the Statesmen of the Third Empire, in two volumes, crown octavo, sounds a pretty dull title, and yet anyone who takes the trouble to read these conversations will find that they are some of the most vivacious dialogues in all literature. Senior's system of recording ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey

... this list which are not otherwise designated are in Octavo, pamphlet form, and may be obtained in half-binding [leather backs and pasteboard sides], suitable for Public and Circulating Libraries, at 25 cents, net, per volume, in addition to the price of the respective ...
— The Entailed Hat - Or, Patty Cannon's Times • George Alfred Townsend

... "Minerva" continued for about five years, when he abandoned it as unprofitable; but his industry may be inferred from the fact that his writings upon the paper, inclusive of translations from foreign languages, would amount to twenty octavo volumes. ...
— Noah Webster - American Men of Letters • Horace E. Scudder

... three minutes he put away his bowl and spoon, drew his three-legged stool to the corner of the fireplace, where he could see to read, seated himself, opened his packet, and displayed his treasure. It was a large, thick, octavo volume, bound in stout leather, and filled with portraits and pictured battle scenes. And on the fly-leaf ...
— Ishmael - In the Depths • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... written Wesley's[560] life:—here turning round To Satan, "Sir, I'm ready to write yours, In two octavo volumes, nicely bound, With notes and preface, all that most allures The pious purchaser; and there's no ground For fear, for I can choose my own reviewers: So let me have the proper documents, That I may add you ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron

... perusal; I am not sure that I have not mentioned them before, but that is no matter, if you have not got them. 'Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire du 17ieme Siecle', is a most useful book for you to recur to for all the facts and chronology of that country: it is in four volumes octavo, and very correct and exact. If I do not mistake, I have formerly recommended to you, 'Les Memoires du Cardinal de Retz'; however, if you have not yet read them, pray do, and with the attention which they deserve. You will there find the best account of a very ...
— The PG Edition of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son • The Earl of Chesterfield

... because he did so little for the world to remember him by. The whole of his literary remains, including his sermons, and a biographical sketch, which fills one half of the book, is contained in a moderate sized octavo volume, published after his death by the Rev. J. A. Russell, Archdeacon of Clogher, whose affection for the memory of Mr. Wolfe prompted him to edit and give to the world the fragmentary manuscripts, which are the ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 2, No. 12, May, 1851. • Various

... said so much about mutual aid and support which are practised by the tillers of the soil in "civilized" countries, I see that I might fill an octavo volume with illustrations taken from the life of the hundreds of millions of men who also live under the tutorship of more or less centralized States, but are out of touch with modern civilization ...
— Mutual Aid • P. Kropotkin

... "Table Talk"-Tischreden-by his friend, Johann Goldschmid (Aurifaber), was in 1566, in a substantial folio. The talk of Luther was arranged, according to its topics, into eighty chapters, each with a minute index of contents. The whole work in a complete octavo edition, published at Stuttgart and Leipzig in 1836, occupies 1,390 closely printed pages, equivalent to 2,780 pages, or full fourteen volumes, ...
— Selections from the Table Talk of Martin Luther • Martin Luther

... jaspis.[9] See the Ancient Life of St. Genevieve, written by an anonymous author, eighteen years after her death, of which the best edition is given by F. Charpentier, a Genevevan regular canon, in octavo, in 1697. It is interpolated in several editions. Bollandus has added another more modern life; see also Tillemont, t. 16, p. 621, and notes, ib. p. 802. Likewise, Gallia Christiana Nova, t. 7, ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler

... embarrass the reader of a work uniting the amiable weaknesses of both species of composition, and presenting much more that is tedious in narration, affected in style, and feeble in thought, than we have lately found in any large octavo volume of five hundred pages. We begin with four introductory chapters recounting the events which led to the usurpation of Bolingbroke, and the succession of Mr. Towle's hero to the English throne; we go on with two chapters descriptive of the youthful character and career of Henry the Fifth; we ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 103, May, 1866 • Various

... with definite engagements, but of people, like writers and artists, who may choose their own times to do their work—he ought to have a regular though not an invariable programme. If he is possessed of such superabundant energy as Walter Scott possessed, he may rise at five, and write ten immortal octavo pages before he appears at breakfast. But as a rule the vitality of ordinary people is more limited, and they are bound to husband it, if they mean to do anything that is worth the name; an artist then ought to have his sacred hours, secure from interruption; and then, let him fill the rest ...
— From a College Window • Arthur Christopher Benson

... the Scientific American. THE SUPPLEMENT is issued weekly. Every number contains 16 octavo pages, uniform in size with Scientific American. Terms of subscription for Supplement, $5.00 a year, postage paid, to subscribers. Single copies, 10 cents. Sold by all ...
— Scientific American, Volume XLIII., No. 25, December 18, 1880 • Various

... strongly, that, not being able to lay down the book till he had finished it, when he attempted to move, he found his arm totally benumbed. The rapidity with which this work was composed, is a wonderful circumstance. Johnson has been heard to say, 'I wrote forty-eight of the printed octavo pages of the Life of Savage at a sitting; but then I sat ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 • Boswell

... this poem, there is room for diversity of taste; but, that it is all original and remarkable work, no person competent to pass judgment on a literary question will deny. It was first published early in the year 1803, in an octavo pamphlet of above fifty pages. Being highly applauded by the principal reviews, and eagerly purchased by the public, a new edition appeared at the end of two months, in a volume of nearly two hundred pages, illustrated with engravings. It received the praise ...
— Biographical Sketches - (From: "Fanshawe and Other Pieces") • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... Towns.—"M." (No. 25. p. 402.) wishes for some guide with reference to the Latin names of towns. A great deal of assistance may be obtained from an octavo volume, published anonymously, and bearing the title "Dictionnaire Interprete-manuel des Noms Latins de la Geographie ancienne et moderne; pour servir a l'Intelligence des Auteurs Latins, principalement des Auteurs Classiques; avec les Designations principales des Lieux. Ouvrage utile ...
— Notes & Queries No. 29, Saturday, May 18, 1850 • Various

... octavo, illustrated by numerous examples of the most exquisite Greek and Roman Coins, executed in facsimile of the Originals in actual relief and in ...
— Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals • R. Lee

... lost one of her most accomplished sons. Mr. SANDERSON has long been known as a writer. His first publication was the collection of Memoirs of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, in nine octavo volumes; a work embracing a vast amount of original and authentic information; and his last, excepting contributions to the literary journals, was 'The American in Paris.' He was a man of most excellent humor, blending ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, May 1844 - Volume 23, Number 5 • Various

... 21st of April (1787), the ostensible object for which Burns had come to Edinburgh was attained, and the second edition of his poems appeared in a handsome octavo volume. The publisher was Creech, then chief of his trade in Scotland. The volume was published by subscription, "for the sole benefit of the author," and the subscribers were so numerous that the list of them covered thirty-eight pages. In that list appeared the names of many of the ...
— Robert Burns • Principal Shairp

... grate; for the cook had gone, and the coachman and servants had taken leave. They could not sell the furniture, for it had been attached; there was not a single object of any value in the house. A goodly collection of pawntickets, forming a very instructive octavo volume, represented all the gold, silver, and jewelry. Berenice had kept back a couple of spoons ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac

... proper love-plot, and make it into three volumes post octavo, twenty-three lines in a page, neither more nor less. One honest fellow at last was found who seemed to me a very respectable and indeed enterprising person. And after going through a list of calculations, which showed that no ...
— The Caxtons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... well-read man from the library in which he lived. It was objected, on the other hand, that such a work would be a mere compilation, and could not succeed with its dead matter in interesting the public. To test the truth of this assertion, my father occupied himself in the preparation of an octavo volume, the principal materials of which were found in the diversified collections of the French Ana; but he enriched his subjects with as much of our own literature as his reading afforded, and he conveyed the ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... the service of Great Britain has given us a vivid picture of Central Africa north of the equator. Dr. Henry Barth has recently published, in four octavo volumes, a narrative of his travels in Africa for five years preceding 1857. During this period, he accompanied the Sheik of Bornou, one of the chief Negro states of Africa, on his march as far south as the Benue, explored the borders of Lake Tsadda, crossed the Niger at Sai, and ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 43, May, 1861 • Various

... the following not inelegant, and certainly not parsimonious tribute to his memory, in a letter written a few days after his death, which, it may be noticed, he makes a day earlier than other contemporary accounts. "Octavo Calendas Octobris animam emisit ille juvenis, formosus, pulcher, elegans, animo pollens et ingesio, procerae validaeque naturae, uti flos vernus evanuit." Opus Epist., ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V3 • William H. Prescott

... in the middle of the room in her best gown, as if she had been going to church, her Bible, a good-sized octavo, under her arm, with a white handkerchief folded round it, and her ...
— Sir Gibbie • George MacDonald

... unabridged English translation of "the grandest and best Novel ever written." One large octavo vol., paper covers, $1.00, ...
— Red-Tape and Pigeon-Hole Generals - As Seen From the Ranks During a Campaign in the Army of the Potomac • William H. Armstrong

... among The World's Classics made its first appearance as an octavo volume of xxiv 352 pages, ...
— Characters of Shakespeare's Plays • William Hazlitt

... of Teachers were published in annual pamphlets which together formed two large octavo volumes. The topics which were then under discussion are best shown by the titles of a few of the addresses, with the name of the speaker and the ...
— A History of the McGuffey Readers • Henry H. Vail

... leaf being entirely omitted. This treatise was published to counteract the pernicious errors in a very popular volume called 'The Design of Christianity, by Edward Fowler, minister of God's Word at Northill, in Bedfordshire. Printed by the authority of the Bishop of London, April 17th, 1671'; an octavo volume of 308 pages. The whole object proposed by Mr. Fowler was to shew, that Christianity is intended merely to restore man to the original state which ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... which had been printed in England, but which the Scotch monopolists would not permit to circulate in Scotland. Bible societies in Scotland had received, in return for their subscription to the London society, copies of an octavo Bible in large type, to which the Scotch patentees had no corresponding edition, and which was much prized by the aged. And it was because Dr. Thompson and others helped to circulate it, as agents of the London Bible Society, that they were proceeded ...
— East Anglia - Personal Recollections and Historical Associations • J. Ewing Ritchie

... and redistribution has dawned at last. No one book shall any longer claim more shelf than another, no book shall be taller or thicker than another. The age of folios and quartos is past, and the Age of the Universal Octavo has dawned.' ...
— Prose Fancies • Richard Le Gallienne

... untouched. But when the fire was stirred, the candles lit, and I drew my footstool as usual to her feet by the hearth, the old room looked so warm and cosy that my pale fears began to vanish in its genial glow. I had possessed myself of the "Pilgrim's Progress," and the volume, a dumpy octavo, lay on my knee. As I read the story of Christian and Apollyon to its end, a new courage fought in me ...
— Dead Man's Rock • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... past month, A copious and critical Latin-English Lexicon, royal octavo, pp. 1663, from the press of the Harpers, is especially deserving of praise. We congratulate Professors Andrews and Turner on the honorable close to their long and arduous labors. They have earned thanks of all beginning students and riper scholars ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 • Various

... one of Stanley's pioneer officers. With an introduction by Henry M. Stanley. Beautifully illustrated with seventy-five wood cuts, half-tones and pen-and-ink sketches by the author, Bacher, Bridgman, Kemble and Taber. Large octavo, ...
— Children's Books and Their Illustrators • Gleeson White

... work on America which is now publishing at Brunswick, Germany, by the house of Westermann, a branch of which is established in this city at the corner of Broadway and Duane-streets. The book in question is to consist of three volumes of some six hundred and fifty octavo pages each, devoted respectively to North, Central, and South America. It is published in numbers of some eighty pages each; of these numbers four are already issued, and we have read them with great satisfaction. The broad and philosophical spirit, the exhaustive learning, and ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851 • Various

... In FIVE large octavo volumes, with a Portrait, on Steel, of Charles Dickens, containing over Four Thousand very large pages, handsomely printed, ...
— Helen and Arthur - or, Miss Thusa's Spinning Wheel • Caroline Lee Hentz

... Sacramentorum adversus Martinum Luther," written in Latin by Henry VIII. in defence of the seven Roman Catholic Sacraments against Luther, and sent to Leo X., with the original presentation address and royal autograph. The book is a good thick octavo volume, printed in London, in clear type, on vellum, with a broad margin. Only two copies are in existence, one in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and the other in the Vatican. For this theological dissertation Henry VIII. received from the Pope the title of ...
— Roman Mosaics - Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood • Hugh Macmillan

... was in two octavo volumes, bound in drab boards, and printed on paper very much yellowed with time at its irregular edges. I do not know when the books happened in my hands. I have no remembrance that they were in any wise offered or commended to me, and in a sort of way they were as authentically ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... a prosperous one with him, as in October he sold to the publisher, Madame Charles Bechet, for 27,000 francs, an edition of "Etudes de Moeurs au XIXieme Siecle" in twelve octavo volumes, consisting of the third edition of "Scenes de la Vie Privee," the first of "Scenes de la Vie de Province," and the first part of the "Scenes de la Vie Parisienne." The last volume of this edition did not appear till 1837, and before that time Balzac had taken further strides ...
— Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings • Mary F. Sandars

... that he knew so well to make a last plea for the needy and oppressed. To the task he brought all his talents—his profound knowledge of law, his unrivaled experience, and his impressive personality; and his argument covers 135 octavo pages. He gave an extended analysis of the demand of the Spanish minister, who asked the President to do what he simply had no constitutional right to do. "The President," said Adams, "has no power to arrest either citizens or foreigners. But even that power is almost insignificant ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... vengeance which must, however, have been gratifying, so far as it went. It may be added that J. R. Adam, "the Cremorne Poet," took up the cudgels unasked in Punch's behalf in a reply entitled "A Word with Bunn;" but this little octavo is as insignificant as its author, and ...
— The History of "Punch" • M. H. Spielmann

... fully occupied, and that I was obliged to decline discussion with many persons who have views of their own; that the proper way is to publish, so that those who choose may read when they can find leisure. I added that I should advise a precursor in the shape of a small pamphlet, as two octavo volumes {358} would be too much for most persons. This was sound advice; but it is not the first, second, or third time that it has proved very unpalatable. I received the following answer, to which I take the liberty of prefixing a bit of ...
— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II (of II) • Augustus de Morgan

... octavo volume, extending to over four hundred pages, and consisting of daily observations without intermission of the psychological development of the author's son from the time of birth to the end of ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 358, November 11, 1882 • Various

... To this man, whose knowledge of the musical art was pre-eminent in his generation, Cassiodorus addresses one of the longest letters in his collection (it would occupy about six pages of an ordinary octavo), only one or two sentences of which relate to the business in hand. The letter begins: "Since the king of the Franks, attracted by the fame of our banquets, has with earnest prayers besought us to send him a harper (citharoedus), our only hope ...
— Theodoric the Goth - Barbarian Champion of Civilisation • Thomas Hodgkin

... verse-and-prose style which had been made popular by various writers, especially Chapelle, but which cannot be said to be very acceptable in itself. Taken together, they fill a volume of just over 500 average octavo pages in the standard edition of 1812; but their individual length is very unequal. The two longest, the fragmentary Quatre Facardins and the finished Le Belier, run each of them to 142 pages; ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury

... published a work unfavourable to the cause of Scottish Episcopacy. His most important work, "An Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, from the first appearance of Christianity in that kingdom," was published in the year 1788, in two octavo volumes. This publication, which is arranged in the form of letters to a friend, and dedicated, in elegant Latin verse, "Ad Filium et Episcopum," (to his son, and bishop), by partaking too rigidly of a sectarian ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... Apostle in one place or another, and with the exception of 1 Timothy and Titus he gives the names of the persons addressed; so that the identification is complete. The list of references to St Paul's Epistles alone occupies two octavo pages of three columns each in the index to Stieren's Irenaeus. Yet of all this Eusebius 'knows nothing.' In a previous chapter indeed he happens to have quoted a passage from Irenaeus, relating to the succession of the Roman bishops, in which this Father states that Linus is mentioned ...
— Essays on "Supernatural Religion" • Joseph B. Lightfoot

... ENGLAND from the first Invasion of the Romans, to the Accession of William and Mary, in the Year 1688. By the Rev. Dr. LINGARD. Handsomely printed in Ten large octavo Volumes, price Six Pounds, cloth lettered, and enriched with a Likeness of the Author, engraved in the best style, from a Portrait taken last year by ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 20, March 16, 1850 • Various

... husband, and on Elsje van Houwening. But these curses could not bring back the fugitive. He flew to Gorcum to browbeat the Daatselaers and to search the famous trunk. He found in it the big New Testament and some skeins of thread, together with an octavo or two of theology and of Greek tragedies; but the Arminian was not in it, and was gone from the custody of the ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... manuscripts of Burke have passed through several hands. On his death, they were intrusted to the eminent civilian, Dr. French Lawrence, of Doctors' Commons, and to Dr. King, afterwards Bishop of Rochester. To these two gentlemen we are indebted for the first eight volumes of the London octavo edition of Burke's Works. The career of Dr. Lawrence was cut short by death in 1809. His associate had the exclusive charge of the papers till 1812, when the venerable widow of Burke died at Beaconsfield, and by her last will gave to ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. September, 1863, No. LXXI. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... came in; one of them put a large dish of oysters on the table, while the other placed a thick octavo volume before each guest. ...
— The Malady of the Century • Max Nordau

... quartos. It was like seeing the gleam of nuggets on the familiar slopes of Mow Cop, which is the Five Towns' mountain. The proprietor, an extraordinarily grimy man, invited him to examine. He could not refuse. He found Byron's "Childe Harold" in one volume and "Don Juan" in another, both royal octavo editions, slightly stained, but bound in full calf. He bought them. He knew that to keep his resolutions he must read a lot of poetry. Then he saw Voltaire's prose tales in four volumes, in French,—an enchanting Didot edition, with ink as black as Hades and paper as white as snow; also bound ...
— Clayhanger • Arnold Bennett

... are intended for the publication, in separate form, of shorter papers from the Museum of Natural History. These are gathered in volumes, octavo in size, with the publication date of each paper recorded in the table ...
— Fulton's "Steam Battery": Blockship and Catamaran • Howard I. Chapelle

... obscure that it is difficult to apply it to what precedes it. Mason in his edition in vain attempts to derive it from a thought of Petrarch, and still more vainly attempts to amend it; Wakefield expends an octavo page to paraphrase this single verse. From the following lines of Chaucer, one would imagine Gray caught the recollected idea. The old Reve, in his prologue, says of himself, ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. II (of 3) - Edited, With Memoir And Notes, By His Son, The Earl Of Beaconsfield • Isaac D'Israeli

... volumes, and would have occupied in composition one hundred and fifty years. As it is, the eight duodecimo volumes give us the events of sixteen years, from 1685 to 1701; so that the history of England from Alfred would require five hundred similar volumes. Now, Gibbon's eight octavo volumes give us the history of the world for thirteen centuries; that is to say, Gibbon has recounted the history of a century in nearly the same space that Macaulay records the history of a year. There cannot be a doubt that Gibbon's Decline ...
— Studies in Early Victorian Literature • Frederic Harrison

... octavo pages Of German psychologics,—he Who his furor verborum assuages 525 Thereon, deserves just seven months' wages More than will ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... nightingales, that are hatched under other birds, never sing till they are instructed by the company of other nightingales." And Jonston affirms, that the nightingales that visit Scotland, have not the same harmony as those of Italy, (Pennant's Zoology, octavo, p. 255); which would lead us to suspect that the singing of birds, like human music, is an artificial language rather than a natural ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. I - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... judgment; contempt which it would be difficult to conceal, since their writings are professedly to be understood by the few, and it is the many who stand in need of salvation. In such case I should no doubt be tempted to think of the devil in 'Melmoth,' who labors indefatigably, through three octavo volumes, to accomplish the destruction of one or two souls, while any common devil would have demolished ...
— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe

... Rolls' series. As to Becket, see the Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, in the same series, and especially the lists of miracles—the mere index of them in the first volume requires thirteen octavo pages. For St. Martin of Tours, see the Guizot collection of French Chronicles. For miracle and shrine cures chronicled by Bede, see his Ecclesiastical History, passim, but especially from page 110 to page 267. ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... afford an insight into the nature and extent of the taxes upon literature. It is found economical to print it upon paper of a very large size, so that although thirty-two pages, instead of sixteen, are really contained in each sheet, this work is still called octavo. ...
— On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures • Charles Babbage

... a time, despatched a pretentious octavo, in the Edinburgh, with a critique, one paragraph in length; that achievement is matched by the disposal of a work in the Courier and Enquirer, as follows, by ingeniously employing the opening sentence of ...
— The Book of Anecdotes and Budget of Fun; • Various

... imagine, with Rapp. He appears to have been a fluent speaker; and on Sundays he delivered to the society a long series of discourses, which were after his death gathered together and printed in German in three ponderous octavo volumes. They concern themselves not only with religious and communistic thoughts, but largely with the minor morals, manners, good order in housekeeping, cleanliness, health observances, and often ...
— The Communistic Societies of the United States • Charles Nordhoff

... duodecimos, glancing at Feval, About, Berthel, Sand, and the rest, each looking for his particular favorite among the authors, when the children, whose busy fingers had helped to untie the knots and unwrap the packages, and who were rummaging with as much eagerness as we, suddenly discovered a sober octavo, that seemed to promise well; for, after a hasty look at it, they carried it away to the library-table, and examined it, for a time, in profound silence. After a while, one little ...
— Our Young Folks, Vol 1, No. 1 - An Illustrated Magazine • Various

... literature of his country and century, thanks to the lofty and steady qualities, to the tender and generous feeling, to the noble independence, which were the honorable characteristics of his talent and his individuality. His works, first published in Paris in 1843 in six octavo volumes, went through ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 11 • Various

... exemplary old clergyman, who many years ago went to his reward followed by the regrets and blessings of his flock, published at his own expense two volumes octavo, entitled, A NEW THEORY OF REDEMPTION. The work was most severely handled in THE MONTHLY or CRITICAL REVIEW, I forget which; and this unprovoked hostility became the good old man's favourite topic of conversation among his friends. "Well!" (he used to exclaim,) ...
— Biographia Literaria • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... only roused Roger Bacon to an almost superhuman energy. By the close of 1267 the work was done. The "greater work," itself in modern form a closely-printed folio, with its successive summaries and appendices in the "lesser" and the "third" works (which make a good octavo more), were produced and forwarded to the ...
— History of the English People, Volume II (of 8) - The Charter, 1216-1307; The Parliament, 1307-1400 • John Richard Green

... went to one of the book-shelves, where there was a set of books, entitled the American Encyclopedia. There were thirteen octavo volumes in the set. It was rather too high for Marco to reach it, and so Forester took all the volumes down and placed them on a lower shelf, not far from the window, in a place where Marco could ...
— Marco Paul's Voyages and Travels; Vermont • Jacob Abbott

... of the numerous published works which relate to the History, Antiquities, Biography, Natural History, and Local Occurrences of that county, and has already sufficient matter to occupy upwards of seventy octavo pages in print, and would be glad to receive notices of any rare books and tracts on those subjects on the shelves of private libraries. A similar work is in contemplation as to existing manuscripts, ancient and ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 43, Saturday, August 24, 1850 • Various

... meaning of this phrase being, "She has lived well who has kept herself well out of sight." Applying this to his beloved mother, he further expresses a regret at disturbing her "sacred obscurity." Then he goes on to disturb it pretty effectually by printing a thick octavo volume of ...
— Women and the Alphabet • Thomas Wentworth Higginson

... him. But first, according to the good old custom of deities, she cast about to change her shape, for fear the divinity of her countenance might dazzle his mortal sight and overcharge the rest of his senses. She therefore gathered up her person into an octavo compass: her body grow white and arid, and split in pieces with dryness; the thick turned into pasteboard, and the thin into paper; upon which her parents and children artfully strewed a black juice, or decoction of gall and soot, ...
— The Battle of the Books - and Other Short Pieces • Jonathan Swift

... route, and the linguistic peculiarities noted, to interest the scientific. The book is perhaps not a fortunate one for those who occupy a place between these classes of readers, and who are tempted to ask of Mr. Du Chaillu, Have you really four hundred and thirty-seven royal octavo pages of news to ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 117, July, 1867. • Various

... heirs of Paulus van Ravesteyn of Amsterdam had published in 1670 an octavo edition of the States-General ("authorized") Dutch version of the Bible. In 1680 another, Remonstrant, version was ...
— Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680 • Jasper Danckaerts

... ten tousand pardon! Now, I make new beginning—quite oder beginning. Madam, since your husband have cut his stick"—— It may be supposed that this did not mend matters; and, reading that in the lady's countenance, the German drew out an octavo dictionary, and said, perspiring with shame at having a second time missed fire,—"Madam, since your husband have gone to kingdom come"—— This he said beseechingly; but the lady was past propitiation by this time, and rapidly moved towards the door. Things had now reached a crisis; ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 57, No. 351, January 1845 • Various

... marvellous has never been carried to a more whimsical and ludicrous extent." The reviewer had probably read the work through from one paper cover to the other. It was in fact too short to bore the most blase of his kind, consisting of but forty-nine small octavo pages. The second edition, which is in the British Museum, bears the following title; "Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia; humbly dedicated and recommended to country gentlemen, and if they please to be repeated as their own after ...
— The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen • Rudolph Erich Raspe

... necessaries in registering fingerprints, they are simple and inexpensive. A block of wood faced with smooth tin or zinc the size of an octavo volume, a small ink roller, and a tube of black ink are all that are required. For removing the ink on thumb or finger a towel and alcohol cleanser are sufficient. A tip impression or a "rolled" finger ...
— Disputed Handwriting • Jerome B. Lavay

... its present form embraces 108 octavo pages, first delivered in the Hall of the New-York Historical Society, has since been repeated to one of the most cultivated audiences ever assembled in Boston, on both occasions eliciting the most cordial ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. V, May, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... has, besides, its own historic monuments, some of which are extremely curious; beginning with Virginia, the State which was first peopled. The earliest historian of Virginia was its founder, Captain John Smith. Captain Smith has left us an octavo volume, entitled "The generall Historie of Virginia and New England, by Captain John Smith, sometymes Governor in those Countryes, and Admirall of New England"; printed at London in 1627. The work is adorned with curious maps and engravings of the time when it appeared; the narrative ...
— Democracy In America, Volume 2 (of 2) • Alexis de Tocqueville

... volume, containing the first professedly complete edition of Drummond's Poems, was Milton's elder nephew. This volume, though announced by Mr. Hall in his Introduction to the Prose Volume, did not appear till about a year afterwards, and then as an octavo of 224 pages, with this title, "Poems by that most famous Wit, William Drummond of Hawthornden ... London, Printed for Rickard Tomlins, at the Sun and Bible, neare Pye-Corner, 1656." The volume is dedicated to Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson

... whether you foresaw the end of the Christmas book! There are two or three places in which I can make it prettier, I think, by slight alterations. . . . I trust to Heaven you may like it. What an affecting story I could have made of it in one octavo volume. Oh to think of the printers transforming my kindly cynical old father into Doctor ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster

... beautifully told, fun and pathos being equally mingled in its ingenious threads. The book is a handsome octavo and is ...
— Sara Crewe - or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... Oldfield's History of the Boroughs, the best companion of the member of parliament, shall aid us: instead of companion we might, however, call this work his family, for there are six full-grown octavo volumes, which would occupy a respectable ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 492 - Vol. 17, No. 492. Saturday, June 4, 1831 • Various

... letters on that subject is a proof that he is well, yet there is an anxiety here among his friends. We have lately had three books published, which are of great merit, in different lines. The one is in seven volumes, octavo, by an Abbe Barthelemy, wherein he has collected every subject of Grecian Literature, after a labor of thirty years. It is called 'Les Voyages d'Anacharsis.' I have taken a copy for you, because the whole impression was likely to be run off at once. The second is a work ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... get my idea. I refer to bulk. The ordinary octavo Bible weighs about two pound; and a half, while the great quarto with the illustrations weighs ten or twelve. How many Dore Bibles would he eat at ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... documents and works, illustrated with a great number of maps, etc., of the French possessions in North Africa, including the neighboring States, viz., the Empires of Morocco, Tunis, etc., published by order and under the superintendence of the Minister of War—sixteen volumes, folio, quarto, and octavo. From the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, twenty-five works on Agriculture and Commerce. From the Minister of the Interior, a beautiful collection of bronze medals, commemorative of national ...
— Movement of the International Literary Exchanges, between France and North America from January 1845 to May, 1846 • Various

... afternoon, Fan was reading beside the open window of the dining-room. After dinner Mrs. Churton had given her The Pleasures of Hope, in a slim old octavo volume, to read, and for the last hour she had been poring over it. Greatly did she admire it, it was so fine, so grand; but all that thunderous roll of rhetoric—the whiskered Pandoors and the fierce Hussars, and Freedom's shriek when Kosciusko fell, ...
— Fan • Henry Harford

... between the harvest of possible results and the slender band of reapers that were to gather it in. And there was even a worse peril than any analogous one that has been proved to exist at Waterloo. A British surgeon, indeed, in a work of two octavo volumes, has endeavored to show that a conspiracy was traced at Waterloo, between two or three foreign regiments, for kindling a panic in the heat of the battle, by flight, and by a sustained blowing-up ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 8, January, 1851 • Various

... all these iniquities, in oratorical style, takes up a whole octavo page; and at the end it is stated, "All these things the demon spoke in Latin by the mouth of ...
— Collected Essays, Volume V - Science and Christian Tradition: Essays • T. H. Huxley

... stream of letters that flows from the Past. Had foreign literature been cut off from us, we should have had few writers of poetry, and Mr. Griswold's book had been a valuable duodecimo and not a heavy octavo. Our chief poets are cultivated men. Poetry with us is the recreation of elegant scholars. Mr. Percival announces that he writes poetry in more than a hundred ways; and the few young men who seem to advance ...
— Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis • G. W. Curtis, ed. George Willis Cooke

... labours of the Record Commission (dissolved in 1836); and in recent years the work has again been taken up and pursued on better lines. The folio volumes of the Record Commission only remain so far of value as they have not been superseded by the more scholarly octavo calendars which are now being issued under the direction of the deputy-keeper of the records. These latter are all accompanied by copious indices which, though not always to be trusted implicitly, immensely facilitate ...
— The History of England - From the Accession of Henry III. to the Death of Edward III. (1216-1377) • T.F. Tout

... punctuated his composition of sermons, the gradual unfolding of his Church History, and religious and literary studies in general, with experimental diversions, beginning with the publication (1796) of an octavo brochure of 39 pages from the press of Dobson in Philadelphia, in which he addressed himself more especially to Berthollet, de la Place, Monge, Morveau, Fourcroy and others on "Considerations on the Doctrine of Phlogiston and the Decomposition of Water." It is the old story in a newer dress. Its ...
— Priestley in America - 1794-1804 • Edgar F. Smith

... be in the right place with its printing right side up, and you will find that it is not very easy until you have had considerable experience. If the sheet is folded into four leaves, the book is called a "quarto," or "4to"; if into eight, it is an "octavo," or "8vo"; if into twelve, a "duodecimo," or "12mo." Books are sometimes advertised in these terms; but they are not definite, because the sheets of the different varieties of paper vary in size. Of late years, publishers have often given the length and width ...
— Makers of Many Things • Eva March Tappan

... in great triumph; 'another book, in three volumes post octavo. Of course it's a great advantage to him, in all his little fashionable descriptions, to have the benefit of my—hem—of my experience, because, of course, few authors who write about such things can have such opportunities of knowing them as I have. He's so wrapped up ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens

... achievements of this patron saint of the "Knights of the Garter" are considered apocryphal, and, in 1792, it required an octavo volume by Rev. J. Milner to prove his existence at all. Emerson says he was a notorious thief and procured ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2 • Various



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