Retrospection: Or: A Review of the Most Striking and Important Events, Characters, Situations, and Their Consequences, Which the Last Eighteen Hundred Years Have Presented to the View of Mankind by Piozzi, Hester Lynch

Nabu Press, 2010-01-04. paperback. Used: Good.

Paperback / softback. New.

paperback. Good. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.

Hardback. New.

hardcover. Good. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.

1801. PIOZZI, Hester Lynch. RETROSPECTION: or, A Review of the Most Striking and Important Events, Characters, Situations and their Consequences, which the last eighteen hundred years have presented to the View of Mankind. With a portrait of the author. In two volumes. London: John Stockdale, 1801. First edition. 461, 540 pp. + [4] pp. adv. Engraved frontispiece portrait in Volume 1; it is heavily foxed. 4to., contemporary mottled calf, spines decorated in gilt, black lettering-pieces to spine. Early ink ownership to ffep. Light to moderate foxing throughout text. The calf is edgeworn with surface abrasions. The joints are starting; one board is nearly detached. Mrs. Piozzi's attempt at a popular history, Retrospection was drubbed by the critics; nonetheless, one cannot help but admire the woman and her plan. A good copy.

London: Printed for John Stockdale, 1801, 1801. First edition. Rothschild 1553; NCBEL II, 1595. Edges a little rubbed; some light foxing; very good copy.. 2 vols, 4to, contemporary half calf, blue paste-paper boards, red morocco spine labels, gilt rules and lettering. Frontis portrait. Without the half-titles and eight-page publisher's catalogue in volume two, but with the four pages of Stockdale's proposal for the publication of maps. A sweeping chronological history of the world in 540 pages, from the birth of Christ to 1800, told in the entertaining, informal style of Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741-1821). Retrospection was written and published to celebrate (and profit from) the turn of the century, for which Piozzi proposed a £1,000 advance. John Stockdale agreed to her terms, but Retrospection was not a commercial success. It is an early example of a history of the world by a woman - though not the first. It took Piozzi at least five years to complete.