first edition
1726 · London
by SWIFT, Jonathan
London: Printed for Benj. Motte, at the Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-street, 1726. Full Description:
[SWIFT, Jonathan]. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. By Captain Lemuel Gulliver. In four parts. London: Printed for Benj. Motte, at the Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-street, 1726.
First edition, Teerink's state AA. With all AA points for both volumes. Four parts in two small octavo volumes (7 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches; 190 x 120 mm.). xii, 148, [6], 164; [6], 154, [8], 199, [1] pp. Complete with engraved frontispiece portrait of Gulliver in the second state, with the inscription “Captain Lemuel Gulliver of Redriff. Ætat. suæ LVIII.” around the oval the the tablet bearing a Latin inscription (printed on paper with vertical chain-lines), Five engraved maps (two for Part III and one for each of the other Parts), and an engraved plate of symbols in Part III. With engraved head and tail pieces, and initials.
Uniformly bound in contemporary full paneled calf. Without any restoration. Boards tooled in blind. Spines numbered in gilt. All edges speckled red. Joints are starting but holding strong. Some minor chipping to heads of spines. Boards with a bit of spotting and rubbing. Previous owner's armorial bookplate on front pastedown of each volume. Still overall very good. A handsome and complete copy of this seminal first edition.
Gulliver’s Travels, to use the popular title, is one of the greatest satires in the English language—or any language, for that matter. It was an immediate success, which accounts in part for its bibliographical complexity, and has been hailed as a book that “would last as long as the language, because it described the vices of man in all nations” (D.N.B.).
“Gulliver’s Travels has given Swift an immortality beyond temporary fame...All those who had been fascinated by the realism and vivid detail of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe were captivated again, even though they knew that Gulliver must be fiction. The brilliance and thoroughness with which his logic and invention work out the picquancies of scale involved by the giant human among the Lilliputians, and then by a minikin Gulliver among the Brobdingnagians, ran away with the author’s original intention. Gulliver’s Travels has achieved the final apotheosis of a satirical fable, but it has also become a tale for children. For every edition designed for the reader with an eye to the historical background, twenty have appeared, abridged or adapted, for readers who care nothing for the satire and enjoy it as a first-class story” (Printing and the Mind of Man).
Grolier, 100 English, 42. Hubbard, pp. 15-17. Printing and the Mind of Man 185. Rothschild 2104. Teerink 290.
HBS 69430.
$20,000. (Inventory #: 69430)
[SWIFT, Jonathan]. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. By Captain Lemuel Gulliver. In four parts. London: Printed for Benj. Motte, at the Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-street, 1726.
First edition, Teerink's state AA. With all AA points for both volumes. Four parts in two small octavo volumes (7 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches; 190 x 120 mm.). xii, 148, [6], 164; [6], 154, [8], 199, [1] pp. Complete with engraved frontispiece portrait of Gulliver in the second state, with the inscription “Captain Lemuel Gulliver of Redriff. Ætat. suæ LVIII.” around the oval the the tablet bearing a Latin inscription (printed on paper with vertical chain-lines), Five engraved maps (two for Part III and one for each of the other Parts), and an engraved plate of symbols in Part III. With engraved head and tail pieces, and initials.
Uniformly bound in contemporary full paneled calf. Without any restoration. Boards tooled in blind. Spines numbered in gilt. All edges speckled red. Joints are starting but holding strong. Some minor chipping to heads of spines. Boards with a bit of spotting and rubbing. Previous owner's armorial bookplate on front pastedown of each volume. Still overall very good. A handsome and complete copy of this seminal first edition.
Gulliver’s Travels, to use the popular title, is one of the greatest satires in the English language—or any language, for that matter. It was an immediate success, which accounts in part for its bibliographical complexity, and has been hailed as a book that “would last as long as the language, because it described the vices of man in all nations” (D.N.B.).
“Gulliver’s Travels has given Swift an immortality beyond temporary fame...All those who had been fascinated by the realism and vivid detail of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe were captivated again, even though they knew that Gulliver must be fiction. The brilliance and thoroughness with which his logic and invention work out the picquancies of scale involved by the giant human among the Lilliputians, and then by a minikin Gulliver among the Brobdingnagians, ran away with the author’s original intention. Gulliver’s Travels has achieved the final apotheosis of a satirical fable, but it has also become a tale for children. For every edition designed for the reader with an eye to the historical background, twenty have appeared, abridged or adapted, for readers who care nothing for the satire and enjoy it as a first-class story” (Printing and the Mind of Man).
Grolier, 100 English, 42. Hubbard, pp. 15-17. Printing and the Mind of Man 185. Rothschild 2104. Teerink 290.
HBS 69430.
$20,000. (Inventory #: 69430)
(310) 659-3674
