first edition
1755 · London
by RICHARDSON, SAMUEL
London: Printed for S. Richardson, 1755. FIRST EDITION. 170 x 100 mm. (6 3/4 x 4"). x, 410 pp.
19th century smooth calf by J. Leighton (stamp-signed on the front free endpaper), covers blind-stamped with armorial designs, raised bands, carefully rebacked, retaining much of the original backstrip, all edges dyed red. Each section with attractive woodcut headpieces and tailpieces, and with decorative initials beginning each. Bookplate of William Stirling on the front pastedown; a blue bookplate reading "A N A &c. KEIR" (Keir House being near Stirling in central Scotland) on the rear pastedown. Sale 47; Rothschild 1753; ESTC T58996. See Day, "History of English Literature 1660-1837," pp. 223-28. ◆The spine a little scuffed and marked, some wear at corners and along edges, isolated light stains internally, but the text almost entirely clean.
This is a compilation of wisdom from Samuel Richardson's three famous novels, "Clarissa," "Pamela," and "History of Sir Charles Grandison." Richardson (1679-1761) was a largely self-educated printer who loved to write letters and who, at the age of 50, began composing novels using the epistolary form. While undeniably moralizing, Richardson’s novels are far more exciting than a modern reader might expect, featuring kidnapping, betrayals, ardent love, and even an instance of justified murder. All this is enacted by characters Day calls "the first in English prose fiction that must be acknowledged as complete and complex human beings." Among the many fans of Richardson were Samuel Johnson, Honoré de Balzac, Thackeray, Fielding, and Jane Austen. The present work was composed as a companion to the author's popular novels in response to requests from friends and admirers to have a handy "collection of maxims, aphorisms, &c. which they think would be of service to the world . . . as they relate to life and manners." While this book itself was not as popular as the novels--no further editions were printed following our 1755 first edition--it did have a notable impact on popular culture. It inspired the production of decks of cards with the sentiments printed on them, advertised as "Entertaining Cards. . . the whole designed, while they amuse and entertain, to establish the Principles of Virtue and Morality in the Minds of both Sexes." These cards were hugely successful, still being issued in 1771, when a ninth edition of them was put out. Our copy is distinguished because it belonged to Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-1878), an art historian and bibliophile known for his impressive library. A Scottish M.P., Knight of the Thistle, and Chancellor of Glasgow University, he also collected paintings, engravings, ceramics, and silver, and he wrote several books relating to his interests, including "Annals of the Artists of Spain" (1848) and "An Essay towards a Collection of Books Relating to Proverbs, Emblems, Apothegms, Epitaphs and Ana." (1860).. (Inventory #: ST19567-157)
19th century smooth calf by J. Leighton (stamp-signed on the front free endpaper), covers blind-stamped with armorial designs, raised bands, carefully rebacked, retaining much of the original backstrip, all edges dyed red. Each section with attractive woodcut headpieces and tailpieces, and with decorative initials beginning each. Bookplate of William Stirling on the front pastedown; a blue bookplate reading "A N A &c. KEIR" (Keir House being near Stirling in central Scotland) on the rear pastedown. Sale 47; Rothschild 1753; ESTC T58996. See Day, "History of English Literature 1660-1837," pp. 223-28. ◆The spine a little scuffed and marked, some wear at corners and along edges, isolated light stains internally, but the text almost entirely clean.
This is a compilation of wisdom from Samuel Richardson's three famous novels, "Clarissa," "Pamela," and "History of Sir Charles Grandison." Richardson (1679-1761) was a largely self-educated printer who loved to write letters and who, at the age of 50, began composing novels using the epistolary form. While undeniably moralizing, Richardson’s novels are far more exciting than a modern reader might expect, featuring kidnapping, betrayals, ardent love, and even an instance of justified murder. All this is enacted by characters Day calls "the first in English prose fiction that must be acknowledged as complete and complex human beings." Among the many fans of Richardson were Samuel Johnson, Honoré de Balzac, Thackeray, Fielding, and Jane Austen. The present work was composed as a companion to the author's popular novels in response to requests from friends and admirers to have a handy "collection of maxims, aphorisms, &c. which they think would be of service to the world . . . as they relate to life and manners." While this book itself was not as popular as the novels--no further editions were printed following our 1755 first edition--it did have a notable impact on popular culture. It inspired the production of decks of cards with the sentiments printed on them, advertised as "Entertaining Cards. . . the whole designed, while they amuse and entertain, to establish the Principles of Virtue and Morality in the Minds of both Sexes." These cards were hugely successful, still being issued in 1771, when a ninth edition of them was put out. Our copy is distinguished because it belonged to Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-1878), an art historian and bibliophile known for his impressive library. A Scottish M.P., Knight of the Thistle, and Chancellor of Glasgow University, he also collected paintings, engravings, ceramics, and silver, and he wrote several books relating to his interests, including "Annals of the Artists of Spain" (1848) and "An Essay towards a Collection of Books Relating to Proverbs, Emblems, Apothegms, Epitaphs and Ana." (1860).. (Inventory #: ST19567-157)
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