PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
[DEFOE, Daniel]. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner. London: W. Taylor, 1719.
Details
[DEFOE, Daniel]. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner. London: W. Taylor, 1719.
8o (190 x 117 mm). 4-page publisher's advertisements at end. Engraved frontispiece portrait by Clarke and Pine. (Preliminaries with some minor worming and expertly repaired in the gutter, some light browning and staining.) Contemporary blind-stamped paneled calf (rebacked and edges and corners restored to style). Provenance: John Sprules (signature on title-page); N. Fenn (signature on title-page); inscription dated 3 July 1777 front paste-down; Theod' Mc Fadden (presentation inscription from "W.J.C." dated 6 April 1851 on front free endpaper); bookplate removed.
[With:]
[DEFOE, Daniel]. The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. London: W. Taylor, 1719. 8o (193 x 112 mm). 11-page publisher's advertisements at end. Folding engraved world map. (Bookplate removed from front paste-down, preliminaries expertly repaired in the gutter, some light browning, a few short marginal tears.) Contemporary blind-stamped paneled calf (rebacked and edges and corners restored to style). Provenance: Theod' Mc Fadden (presentation inscription from "W.J.C." dated 6 April 1852 on front free endpaper).
[With:]
[DEFOE, Daniel]. Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: with his vision of the Angelick World. London: William Taylor, 1720. 8o (193 x 118 mm). 2-page publisher's advertisements at end. Engraved folding plate of Robinson Crusoe's Island by Clark and Pine. (One or two pale marginal stains, rear free endpaper renewed.) Contemporary blind-stamped paneled calf (rebacked preserving the original spine). Provenance: Alex Leslie (bookplate, 19th-century inscription on the front free endpaper); discreet 19th-century blind-stamped crest on title-page.
"MUCH OF MODERN SCIENCE FICTION IS BASICALLY CRUSOE'S ISLAND CHANGED TO A PLANET" (PMM)
Second edition of part one; FIRST EDITION, second issue of part 2, with the advertisement for the fourth edition of the first part on the verso of A4 of The Preface, and irregularities of presswork throughout; FIRST EDITION of part 3, " way with a" on p. 170, line 1, no asterisk under "out" at foot of p. 194, catchword "is" on p. 253, and with the catchword "A" on page 270.
Robinson Crusoe had a factual basis in so far as Alexander Selkirk was known to have been put on the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez in 1704 at his own request, to be rescued in 1709 by Woodes Rogers. However, Defoe, writing the story at nearly sixty, gave his hero a spirit of enterprise and a meditative frame of mind utterly lacking in Selkirk himself. The book's success was immediate, a second edition being called for only seventeen days after publication of the first on 25 April 1719. The Farther Adventures appeared on 20 August, and relates how Crusoe revisited the island with Friday. The final part, The Serious Reflections, followed in 1720. "The romance of Crusoes's adventures, the figure of civilized man fending for himself on a desert island, has made an imperishable impression on the mind of man... much of modern science fiction is basically Crusoe's island changed to a planet" (PMM, Exhibition Catalogue, 1963, 325). Grolier English 41; Hutchins pp. 72-74, 98-112, and 122-128; Moore 412, 417, 436; PMM 180. (3)
8
[With:]
[DEFOE, Daniel]. The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. London: W. Taylor, 1719. 8
[With:]
[DEFOE, Daniel]. Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: with his vision of the Angelick World. London: William Taylor, 1720. 8
"MUCH OF MODERN SCIENCE FICTION IS BASICALLY CRUSOE'S ISLAND CHANGED TO A PLANET" (PMM)
Second edition of part one; FIRST EDITION, second issue of part 2, with the advertisement for the fourth edition of the first part on the verso of A4 of The Preface, and irregularities of presswork throughout; FIRST EDITION of part 3, " way with a" on p. 170, line 1, no asterisk under "out" at foot of p. 194, catchword "is" on p. 253, and with the catchword "A" on page 270.
Robinson Crusoe had a factual basis in so far as Alexander Selkirk was known to have been put on the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez in 1704 at his own request, to be rescued in 1709 by Woodes Rogers. However, Defoe, writing the story at nearly sixty, gave his hero a spirit of enterprise and a meditative frame of mind utterly lacking in Selkirk himself. The book's success was immediate, a second edition being called for only seventeen days after publication of the first on 25 April 1719. The Farther Adventures appeared on 20 August, and relates how Crusoe revisited the island with Friday. The final part, The Serious Reflections, followed in 1720. "The romance of Crusoes's adventures, the figure of civilized man fending for himself on a desert island, has made an imperishable impression on the mind of man... much of modern science fiction is basically Crusoe's island changed to a planet" (PMM, Exhibition Catalogue, 1963, 325). Grolier English 41; Hutchins pp. 72-74, 98-112, and 122-128; Moore 412, 417, 436; PMM 180. (3)