Details
[SMOLLETT, Tobias, attributed]. The History and Adventures of an Atom. London: Robinson and Roberts, 1749 [i.e. 1769].
2 volumes, 12o (171 x 100 mm). Half-titles. (B9 and B10 with short closed marginal tear.) Contemporary sprinkled calf, red morocco spine labels (some minor wear to spine ends and joints); slipcase.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE with the 1749 date which was later corrected, half-title to vol. II without the "d" in "and." As Rothschild notes, this violently satirical attack on George II and contemporary politicians has been attributed to Smollet on the grounds of 18th-century rumour and internal evidence; there is "no conclusive proof" that he wrote it. The work is couched in crude physiological, not to say scatalogical, terms; Japan is a thin fiction for England; and the atom relates his various transmigrations having lived in the body of a Japanese. Rothschild 1923. (2)
2 volumes, 12o (171 x 100 mm). Half-titles. (B9 and B10 with short closed marginal tear.) Contemporary sprinkled calf, red morocco spine labels (some minor wear to spine ends and joints); slipcase.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE with the 1749 date which was later corrected, half-title to vol. II without the "d" in "and." As Rothschild notes, this violently satirical attack on George II and contemporary politicians has been attributed to Smollet on the grounds of 18th-century rumour and internal evidence; there is "no conclusive proof" that he wrote it. The work is couched in crude physiological, not to say scatalogical, terms; Japan is a thin fiction for England; and the atom relates his various transmigrations having lived in the body of a Japanese. Rothschild 1923. (2)