The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Volumes I and II (Novelist's Library) by Fielding, Henry; Roscoe, Thomas (Editor) - 1831

London: James Cochrane and Co, 1831. Leather. Very good +. Cruikshank, George. Sixteenmo size, 935 pp., binding by S. Kaufmann. Published by Henry Fielding (1707-1754) in 1749, "Tom Jones" is among the earliest English prose works that can be described as a novel; it is the earliest novel mentioned by W. Somerset Maugham in his 1948 book "Great Novelists and Their Novels" and as one of the ten best novels of the world (n. b., info from Wikipedia). These volumes comprise a portion of the Novelist's Library (Vol. V) and are in a lovely blue leather binding with the stamp of "S. Kaumann" on the front turn-ins and the verso of the front free endpaper in Volume I.

Edited by Roscoe Tobias, Esq. (1791-1871), himself an author and translator; his own works include mostly travel memoirs.

___DESCRIPTION: Navy blue leather with gilt ornaments to all four corners of both the front and rear boards, same decoration in four of the six spine compartments, gilt lettering in the other two with title and author, "Cruikshank Illustrations" in gilt at the tail of the spine, top edge gilt, gilt inner dentelles, frontispiece in Volume I being a sketch of Fielding by Hogarth, and in Volume II being a Cruikshank illustration; Volume I has four Cruikshank illustrations, Volume II has three additional to the frontispiece, for a total of eight; sixteenmo size (6.75" by 4.5"), pagination: Volume I: [i-vii] viii-xix [xx-xxiii] [1] 2-456; Volume II: [i-viii] [1] 2-448.

___CONDITION: Volumes are better than very good overall, with strong, square text blocks, solid hinges, straight corners, the interiors are clean and bright, and entirely free of prior owner markings; both volumes have rubbing to the bottom edges of the boards, the corners, and to the heads and tails of the spines, and both spines are sunned to a light brown; the interiors are near fine, lightly toned, slight offsetting from the illustrations, and the title page of Volume I with a small area where it appears a prior owner may have erased some initials (?).

___POSTAGE: International customers, please note that additional postage may apply, please contact seller for details.

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