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SIGMUND FREUD — CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS — 1930 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION
HOGARTH PRESS — LEONARD & VIRGINIA WOOLF — JOAN RIVIERE TRANSLATION — WOOLMER 223
FREUD, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontents. Authorized translation by Joan Riviere. London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1930.
First English edition.
International Psycho-Analytical Library, No. 17, edited by Ernest Jones.
144 pages, with photographic portrait frontispiece of Freud after Max Halberstadt. Original publisher\'s dark green cloth, gilt-lettered spine.
Woolmer 223.
A desirable first English edition of one of Sigmund Freud\'s most influential late works, published in 1930 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press in association with the Institute of Psycho-Analysis.
This is the original 1930 Hogarth Press edition, not a later printing or modern reissue, retaining its original green cloth binding and notably bright gilt spine lettering.
Freud, Riviere, and the Hogarth Press
First published in German as Das Unbehagen in der Kultur, Civilization and Its Discontents stands among Freud\'s major works of social and cultural thought.
For the first English edition, Freud\'s text was translated by Joan Riviere, one of the central figures in the development of British psychoanalysis and one of Freud\'s most important English translators. Riviere had herself undergone analysis with Freud and became an important analyst, writer, teacher, and interpreter of both Freud and Melanie Klein.
The volume was issued as No. 17 of the International Psycho-Analytical Library, under the editorship of Ernest Jones.
Its publication by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press gives the book an additional place within the history of literary modernism and Bloomsbury publishing. The Hogarth Press is best known for its association with Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury circle but also played an important role in making psychoanalytic writing available to English readers.
The first English edition is bibliographically recorded as Woolmer 223.
One of Freud\'s Major Works
In Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud turns from the individual patient to civilization itself.
He examines the profound conflict between the human desire for instinctive gratification and the restrictions required by communal life. Civilization gives humanity security, social organization, intellectual achievement, art, and collective existence, but Freud argues that these gains require the suppression, redirection, and regulation of powerful human instincts.
Among the book\'s central subjects are:
the pleasure principle
aggression and destructive impulses
sexual repression
love and communal bonds
religion and consolation
guilt
the superego
instinct and civilization
individual happiness versus social order
The result is one of Freud\'s most enduring meditations on the psychological price of civilized existence.
Its influence extends far beyond clinical psychoanalysis into psychology, philosophy, sociology, political thought, religious criticism, literary criticism, modernism, and twentieth-century intellectual history.
Original 1930 Hogarth Press Binding
Bound in the original publisher\'s dark green cloth with gilt lettering to the spine.
The spine reads:
Civilization
and Its
Discontents
Sigm. Freud
with the International Psycho-Analytical Library device and series number at the foot.
The gilt remains unusually bright, clear, and fully legible, giving this jacketless copy a particularly attractive appearance on the shelf.
The book remains in its original publisher\'s binding and has not been rebound or restored.
The original dust jacket is not present.
Copies retaining the original grey dust jacket are notably uncommon, making attractive examples in the original green cloth the principal obtainable form of the first English edition for many collectors.
Portrait Frontispiece
The original photographic portrait frontispiece of Sigmund Freud is present, after the celebrated portrait by Max Halberstadt.
It remains firmly bound in the volume.
Bibliographical Details
Author: Sigmund Freud
Title: Civilization and Its Discontents
Original title: Das Unbehagen in der Kultur
Translator: Joan Riviere
Publisher: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis
Place: London
Date: 1930
Edition: First English edition
Series: International Psycho-Analytical Library, No. 17
Series editor: Ernest Jones
Pagination: 144 pages
Illustration: Photographic portrait frontispiece of Freud after Max Halberstadt
Binding: Original publisher\'s dark green cloth, spine lettered in gilt
Reference: Woolmer 223
Language: English
Condition
Good to Very Good overall. Attractive original binding with bright gilt; substantial interior foxing. Lacking the dust jacket.
The original dark green cloth binding remains firm, sound, and presentable. Boards show light rubbing, handling marks, and faint surface mottling consistent with age. Corners have only modest wear. Spine ends show light rubbing and softening without major loss or splitting.
A particular strength of this copy is the bright spine gilt, which remains clear, attractive, and fully legible.
The binding is square and secure, with no detached leaves observed.
Internally there is substantial age-related foxing. Foxing is heaviest on the portrait frontispiece, title page, preliminary leaves, and several terminal leaves. Scattered foxing also occurs on portions of the text and along the text-block edges. Many other pages are considerably cleaner.
Despite the foxing, the printed text remains clear and entirely readable.
No extensive annotation or underlining has been observed. No bookplate or author signature is present.
Lacking the original dust jacket.
Please examine all photographs carefully. The photographs form an important part of the condition description and show both the attractive original binding and the extent of the interior foxing.
Collector Interest
An important first edition with appeal across several established collecting fields:
Sigmund editions
Hogarth Press
Virginia Woolf
Leonard Woolf
Joan Riviere
Ernest psychology
Twentieth-century intellectual history
Original 1930 first English editions are substantially less common than the numerous later Hogarth, Norton, Penguin, and modern editions encountered today.
A particularly significant association of Freud, the early British psychoanalytic movement, Joan Riviere, and Leonard and Virginia Woolf\'s Hogarth Press, preserved in its original publisher\'s cloth with especially attractive gilt spine lettering.
A cornerstone text for a collection of Freud, psychoanalysis, psychology, philosophy, modern intellectual history, or Hogarth Press publications.
