THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LLD. An Account of His Studies and Numerous Works in Chronological Order; A Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations With Many Eminent Persons; And Various Original Pieces of His Composition, Never Before Published; The Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great Britain for Nearly Half a Century During Which He Flourished.
(London: Routledge, Warnes and Routledge, 1859).
A BEAUTIFUL COPY OF ONE OF THE GREAT BOOKS IN THE LANGUAGE, VERY HANDSOMELY BOUND AND FULLY ILLUSTRATED. Celebrated for its intimacy and vividness, Boswell's Life of Johnson "is one of the best books in the world. It is assuredly a great, very great work. Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic Poets,--Shakespeare is not more decidedly the first of Dramatists,--Demosthenes is not more decidedly the first of Orators, than Boswell is the first of Biographers..." (Macauley, in the Edinburgh Review, 1831). Boswell learned a great deal about the art of biography from his subject, and brought to his task boundless curiosity, persistence, and zest.
Boswell had been collecting material for this work since his first interview with Johnson in 1763, and was confident that his kind of biography, "which gives not only a History of Johnson's visible progress through the world, and of his publications, but a view of his mind in his letters and conversations, is the most perfect that can be conceived, and will be more of a Life than any work that has ever yet appeared." He said too that: A sanction to my faculty of giving a just representation of Dr. Johnson I could not conceal. Nor will I suppress my satisfaction in the consciousness, that by recording so considerable a portion of the wit and wisdom of the brightest ornament of the eigteenth century, I have largely provided for the instruction and entertainment of mankind. If Boswell does indulge in a little harmless flattery to himself, the concluding words of his preface are literally true, for Boswell s Johnson, as much as any other book, has largely provided for the instruction and entertainment of mankind.
Only 1750 copies of the first edition were printed. Item #31462
4 volumes bound in two. A New Edition Elucidated by Copious Notes and Illustrated with Numerous Portraits, Views and Characteristic Designs, Engraved from Authentic Sources. Decorated with four frontispiece engravings, four engraved title-pages, the round robin plate with signatures on thick paper, and a great profusion of engravings throughout the text. 8vo, beautifully bound in full polished calf, the covers with double gilt fillet frames enclosing an inner stippled frame in blind, the spines with raised bands gilt stippled, separating compartments ecorated with full gilt panels tooled in gilt with elaborate corner pieces and central floral elements, two compartments with contrasting green and black morocco lettering labels gilt, edges tooled in gilt, turnovers tooled in blind, marbled endleaves and edges xxxii, 291; viii, 298; viii, 298; viii, 300 pp. A very handsome and very fine set with the bindings in excellent condition. Beautifully preserved and presented.