THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON Comprehending an Account of his Studies and Numerous Works, etc.

4 volumes. The Fifth Edition, Revised and Augmented. Engraved portrait Reynolds as frontispiece to Vol. I, folding plate with facsimiles of Johnson’s handwriting in the second volume, the Round Robin plate in Vol. III, all complete as called for. 8vo, in handsome contemporary bindings of full mottled calf, the covers with gilt roll tooling to the borders, the spines richly gilt with multi-ruled and decorated gilt bands separating the compartments, the compartments with central gilt ornaments, lettered in gilt in one compartment, original marbled endleaves. xxxv, [3], 478; 496; 480; 522, [2] pp. A handsome set, generally quite well preserved with some inevitable rubbing to the extremities and some light wear to the hinges though the bindings are strong and tight and the text-blocks all in good order, crisp, clean and unpressed, some light mellowing on occasion.

Edizione: early printing of one of the greatest biographies in the language. 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.<br> 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.”<br> a valuable reference to the life and times of the era. the object of the work is to depict the life of the period in english history which may legitimately be described as the age of johnson. johnson lived from 1709 to 1784, from the time of queen anne and into the third decade of the reign of george iii. the book is a descriptive tour de force, extremely well written and highly illuminating.<br> johnson had once said of his own time--’the present age,’ he wrote in 1758, <br>though not likely to shine hereafter among the most splendid periods of history, has yet given examples of charity, which may be very properly commended to imitation.’ the years after johnson wrote those words saw the year of minden, of quiberon bay, lgos, and the taking of quebec, a series of victories to which there are few parallels. it was the age of chatham too, and of clive, cook, wolfe, burke, fox, gibbon, fielding, reynolds, gainsborough, the adams, garrick, cavendish, priestley, watt and many, many others. it can be reckoned among the splendid periods of history.