GOLDSMITH, Oliver.

£900 · Offered by Peter Harrington

Citizen of the World; First edition in book form of the author's "first widely recognized literary achievement" (ODNB). The series of pseudo-letters offers a satirical commentary on British society and includes a pointed critique of Tristram Shandy.Goldsmith began contributing the letters to John Newbery's Public Ledger in 1760, providing humorous commentary to lighten the financial content. Their success led him to collect, revise, and add four new pieces for their publication as The Citizen of the World. Modelled on Montesquieu's Lettres persanes and the English translation of d'Argens's Lettres chinoises, the work was favorably reviewed, excerpted and imitated in periodicals, and reprinted in Dublin in 1762. It was translated into French and German in 1763, though it achieved only moderate commercial success; a second London edition appeared in 1774.Two issues appeared in 1762, without clear priority.

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