Project Gutenberg's Sulamith: A Romance of Antiquity, by Alexandre Kuprin

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Title: Sulamith: A Romance of Antiquity

Author: Alexandre Kuprin

Illustrator: Forbes-Felix

Translator: B. G. Guerney

Release Date: August 16, 2010 [EBook #33444]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SULAMITH: A ROMANCE OF ANTIQUITY ***

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_Printed in 18 point Caslon on Villon Antique Laid paper. 1500 numbered
copies were issued for subscribers, and type distributed after printing.
The illustrations were especially designed for this edition._

_This is number_ [1114]

[Illustration]

SULAMITH

_A Romance of Antiquity_

_By_ ALEXANDRE KUPRIN

Author of "_Yama_" (_The Pit_), etc.

_Translated from the Russian_

By B. G. GUERNEY

with

_Eight full-page illustrations in color_

_By_ FORBES-FELIX

NEW YORK

_Privately Printed for Subscribers_

MCMXXVIII

Copyright by
NICHOLAS L. BROWN
_All Rights Reserved_

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

_AUTHOR'S DEDICATION:_

To Ivan Alexeievich Bunin

A. Kuprin

Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm: for love
_is_ strong as death; jealousy _is_ cruel as the grave: the coals
thereof _are_ coals of fire, which _hath_ a most vehement flame.[1]

_THE SONG OF SONGS_

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Plate One _Frontispiece_
Plate Two Page 65
Plate Three Page 85
Plate Four Page 101
Plate Five Page 129
Plate Six Page 161
Plate Seven Page 185
Plate Eight Page 209

CHAPTER ONE

I.

King Solomon had not yet attained middle age--forty-five; yet the fame
of his wisdom and comeliness, of the grandeur of his life and the pomp
of his court, had spread far beyond the limits of Palestine. In Assyria
and Phoenicia; in Lower and Upper AEgypt; from ancient Tabriz to Yemen
and from Ismar unto Persepolis; on the coast of the Black Sea and upon
the islands of the Medi