The Works of John Dryden, Now First Collected in Eighteen Volumes. Illustrated with Notes, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory, and a Life of the Author by Walter Scott, Esq. 18 vols (set)

~Original sprinkled tan calf. Rebacked in light brown cloth, gilt lettering and blind ruling to spines. Traces of gilt to board edges. Mild wear to board edges and corners. 8vos (14.2 x 22.2cm). Hinges sound. Replacement laid paper endpapers. Foxing to fore-edges. Minor scattered foxing to text block, mostly to early and late pages. Half-titles to all vols except vol. III. Frontis port. to vol. I, folding plate to vol. VI, and plate to vol. IX. 11pp. advertisement to vol. I by Scott as editor, framing Dryden, among English authors, as 'one who may claim at least the third place in that honoured list' (behind Shakespeare and Milton); Scott's Life of Dryden takes up the rest of vol. I. Index to rear of final vol. Pencil sidelining to a few pp. in vols I, X, XII, & XIII. Pencil annots to blank rear endpage in vols II-V, XI, & XVI. Walter Scott's 'magisterial edition' of Dryden's works, the first collected edition, 'with a judicious life and learned historical notes', which 're-established Dryden for the nineteenth-century public' (ODNB). Scott's life of Dryden, acclaimed by the 1971 Introduction to 'Dryden: The Critical Heritage' as 'still the best critical biography of Dryden, whether one looks for historical and literary context, or for sequence and relation, or for critical insight', stands as a major achievement in literary history and saw Dryden 'enshrined' among the defining figures of English literature. First edition. ~Robust packaging. Tracking can be added to overseas orders. Size: c. 500pp. per vol.…