Sir Roger de Coverley / by the Spectator ; the notes and illustrations by W. Henry Wills ; the engravings by Thompson, from designs by Fred. Tayler

[Addison, Joseph and Richard Steele]

Published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London, 1854

About this Item

[Addison, Joseph and Richard Steele]. Sir Roger de Coverley / by the Spectator ; the notes and illustrations by W. Henry Wills ; the engravings by Thompson, from designs by Fred. Tayler. Second edition. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1854. Hardback, VG. Panelled, bevelled full leather, with a little bumping to corners, light wear to edges, much heavier to spine edges where the leather has decayed in places and the spine been rebound over cloth. Extraordinary and distinctive fixings, comprising horizontal bone plain (bevelled) and vertical braided ivory pallets to front and back, and a blind shield to back, all fixed with tiny metal pins. Blind frame, decorations and titles to front, with a gilt circle representing a belt to the centre, with a bee and the legend "Labor omnia vincit". Blind and gilt decorations to the back. Spine in six panels with five raised bands, rubbed in places, as is the black titles box with gilt lettering. Binding strong and tight. Marbled endpapers. Decorated chapter heads and capitals. xii, 227pp., b/w illustrations, the contents clean and bright. Edges of the page block stained red. Addison's contributions to The Spectator are said to have perfected the essay as a literary form. His prose style was the model for pure and elegant English until the end of the 18th century; his comments on the manners and morals were widely influential in forming the middle-class ideal of a dispassionate, tolerant, Christian world citizen. His fictitious Sir Roger De Coverly Papers, according to William Makepeace Thackeray, give a full ".expression of the life of the time; of the manners, of the movement, the dress, the pleasures, the laughter, and the ridicules of society," for the period in a way that no pure history or autobiography ever could.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: UNDER THE TERMS OF THE IVORY ACT 2018 THIS ITEM HAS AN EXEMPTION, NUMBER HYVT4YMK 02 JUNE 2026, AS HAVING BEEN MADE BEFORE 3 MARCH 1947 AND CONTAINING LESS THAN 10% IVORY BY VOLUME (THE IVORY CONTENT IS 0.91%). PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EXEMPTION APPLIES ONLY TO THE CURRENT OWNER AND WILL LAPSE AT THE POINT OF SALE. SHOULD THE PURCHASER WISH TO TRADE THIS ITEM SUBSEQUENTLY A NEW EXEMPTION WILL BE REQUIRED.

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Seller Inventory # ABE-1780432490618

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Sir Roger de Coverley / by the Spectator ; the notes and illustrations by W. Henry Wills ; the engravings by Thompson, from designs by Fred. Tayler
• Publisher: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London
• Publication Date: 1854
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Fred. Tayler
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literary criticism
  • Pre-1850 imprints
  • Politics