The Works of Oliver Goldsmith, 4 Volumes (First Edition, Prize Binding)

A$500 · Offered by Harry Hartog Rare Books · No longer available

First edition

GOLDSMITH, Oliver. The Works of Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Peter Cunningham. London: John Murray, 1854. 4 vols. 8vo. Full burgundy calf, gilt device of Scotch College to each cover, spines gilt with five raised bands and decorated compartments, titling on black panel, gilt decorated dentelles. Marbled edges and endpapers. Vol. I: xii, 468 pp.; Vol. II: [vi], 487 pp.; Vol. III: [iv], 447 pp.; Vol. IV: [iv], 450 pp. Each volume with engraved title page and vignette; Vol. IV with additional frontispiece plate; all with tissue guards. First edition of the Works edited by Cunningham. Prize binding from Scotch College, Melbourne. Oliver Goldsmith, among the most gifted writers of the 18th century, left behind a body of work that defies easy classification: The Vicar of Wakefield , one of the most beloved novels in the English language; She Stoops to Conquer , still among the most reliably funny plays in the repertoire; The Deserted Village , a poem of moral force and lyrical beauty; and alongside these celebrated works a vast range of essays, reviews, biographies, natural histories, and miscellaneous writings produced with the driven productivity of a man who was always in debt and always writing to meet it. Peter Cunningham's 1854 edition for John Murray was the first to gather this diverse output in a form that respected Goldsmith's own intentions. As Cunningham states in his preface, this edition takes full account of the author's corrections and to present the texts as the aut

• Binding: Hardcover

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