The Quest of the Golden Girl
A Romance
by Richard Le Gallienne 1866–1947
The book, and the century it came out of.
A man of twenty-seven leaves London on foot to find the ideal woman, and meets several who are not her — a barmaid, a widow, a girl in a wood — while talking to the reader about books, wine and the folly of the whole enterprise. Le Gallienne was the beautiful young poet of the 1890s, long-haired, in the Yellow Book circle and close to Wilde; this 1896 bestseller is that decade’s charm distilled, and it knows exactly how silly it is. Illustrated with 53 full-page plates — paintings by Leighton, Larsson and Woltze among them.
When the knell of my thirtieth birthday sounded, I suddenly realized, with a desolate feeling at the heart, that I was alone in the world.
The Quest of the Golden Girl, by Richard Le Gallienne, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Love & Society
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 152 pages
- Reading time
- about 3 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785501089570
53 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
The Quest of the Golden Girl, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Love & Society shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501089570, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of The Quest of the Golden Girl?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Richard Le Gallienne's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 152 pages, which is roughly about 3 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
