A general dictionary of the English language. One main object of which, is, to establish a plain and permanent standard of pronunciation. To which is prefixed a rhetorical grammar

First edition, 4to, 2 vols., pp. [20], 64 plus unpaginated lexicon in double column; [4], unpaginated lexicon, [1]; complete with the half-titles, the list of subscribers (among whom are James Boswell and David Garrick) and the list of works published by Sheridan following the final leaf of text; top third of leaf 5C in vol. I torn away (the page beginning with the word 'godliness' here supplied in Xerox facsimile), lower joint of vol. I just starting, else a very good, sound copy in full contemporary calf, preserving the original red and green morocco labels on spines; attractive set. Sheridan, the elocutionist, "is the first lexicographer who consistently respelled the entry words to indicate pronunciation . Though the idea of respelling was not new --Johnson and earlier lexicographers had sometimes done it-- it had been used only exceptionally and in systems that were relatively crude. Sheridan pronounced every word, even simple ones, indicated stress as well as sounds in his respellings, and gave greater attention to the hitherto neglected consonants than ever before. The latter part of the eighteenth century saw the publication of a number of dictionaries devoted principally to pronunciation. But it was not until the publication of Sheridan's A General Dictionary of the English Language that a major advance was made." (Landeau, Dictionaries, pp. 56-57). Alston V, 312; Kennedy 6286.…