[Gulliver's Travels] Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships

Swift, Jonathan; Lemuel Gulliver [Pseudonym]

Edité par Printed for Benjamin Motte at the Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-street, London, 1726

A propos de cet article

Third edition, published in December 1726, but also referred to as the third printing of the first edition. Four parts in two volumes. Both volumes conform to Teerink's 'B' edition, with frontispiece portrait in second state, four engraved maps and two plans set from the 'AA' edition, misnumbered pages: one in sheet E, ten in sheet N, and eight in sheet Q. Bound with the four Keys (first printed the same year) at the end of each part. Bound in modern burgundy large grain morocco, triple ruled with five raised bands and intricately tooled compartments, gilt dentelles and marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, a handsome signed binding by L.[ucien] Broca; housed in a modern morocco and red cloth clamshell case. Armorial bookplates to front pastedowns of Frederick Seymour Winston (1806-1885), an American business man and former president of The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. Near Fine with imperceptible repairs to joints of each volume, light wear to rear board of Volume I. Light offsetting from dentelles at each endpaper, old hand notation at verso of title page in Volume I, dampstaining to bottom edge of Plate I, contemporary ownership dated 1784 at title page of Volume II, "devoted" written in contemporary hand on the rear leaf of Volume II, each volume has light toning and faint marginal soiling to contents. One of the most famous novels in the Western canon. The Anglo-Irish priest Jonathan Swift published under various pseudonyms, Lemuel Gulliver being the chosen name for this novel, which purports to be a memoir of Gulliver s encounters with fantastical people in distant lands. The satire of British society was an instant success; some disparaged the book and many praised it, but everyone read it. The first printing sold out in a week and two more editions were published the same year. Those first three editions, almost identical, have been designated by the bibliographer Herman Teerink as A, AA, and B. Keen to preserve his anonymity, Swift dealt with his London publisher Benjamin Motte via post and intermediary. He did not read the proofs and complained afterward that his text had been mangled, and Motte s "Second Edition" (actually his fourth) of 1727 included some hundred minor revisions, marking the first significant change to the text. Mistakes there may have been, but there is no doubt that Motte s Gulliver s Travels was a handsome publication, well ornamented with decorative head- and tail-pieces. The maps were taken (with some confusion as to scale) from the work of Herman Moll, a leading cartographer of the day and a man mentioned by name in the novel. A striking set. Teerink 291, Printing and the Mind of Man 185.

N° de réf. du vendeur 140948985

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: [Gulliver's Travels] Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships
• Éditeur: Printed for Benjamin Motte at the Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-street, London
• Date de parution: 1726
• Édition: First Edition.
• État de l'article: Near Fine
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Literature
  • Literature Before 1900