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Edition deluxe, limited to 775 copies (575 for England and 200 for the United States) signed by Arthur Rackham, this being copy no. 120. Quarto (10 5/16 x 7 3/4 in; 263 x 197 mm). Twelve full page color plates, twenty-two black and white line drawings. A fine copy. Publisher's white vellum with gilt-ruled borders and lettering. Pictorial endpapers. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Partially unopened. Chemised in a quarter green morocco clamshell case. Reportedly published as a means for thwarting debt, The Vicar of Wakefield became one of the most popular novels of the late 18th century. Mixing irony with sentimentalism, it paints a portrait of village life "narrated by Dr. Primrose, the title character, whose family endured multiple trials -- including the loss of their fortune, the seduction of a daughter, the destruction of their home by fire, and the vicar's incarceration -- before all is put right at the end" (Britannica). Goldsmith was a noted Irish wit and a member of Samuel Johnson?s famed literary club, who Johnson praised as: ?In genius, vivid, versatile, sublime. In style, clear, elevated, elegant." The legend of the book?s publication is that Goldsmith was about to be arrested by his landlady for debt, when Johnson was able to sell the manuscript of the novel to a publisher for sixty pounds, saving his friend in the nick of time. For this illustrated edition, Rackham embraced historical costume and his traditional whimsy, despite the more fashionable Jazz-Age and Art Deco style predominant at the time (Husdon). Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is perhaps the most acclaimed and influential illustrator of the Golden Age of Illustration. A prolific artist even from his youth, Rackham got his start as an illustrator working for the Westminster Budget Newspaper (1892). Over the next few years, he took on more and more commissions for children?s books, hitting his career high in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Rackham turned his imaginative pen to every classic?from Shakespeare to Dickens to Poe. Hudson, p. 171. Latimore and Haskell, p. 65. Riall, p. 170. Fine.
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