[Rarebooks] fa: SWIFT - VOYAGES DE GULLIVER - Handsome 1st/Early French ed. - 1727

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

On eBay now, ending Sunday, Feb. 1. More details and photos can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZarch_in_la

Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

	
[Jonathan Swift:] Voyages de Gulliver. Paris: Dans la boutique de la  
V. Coustelier, chés Jacques Guerin, Quay des Augustins, 1727. Two  
volumes, 12mo (16 x 9.5 cm), bound in full navy-blue morocco, gilt- 
lettered spine, gilt turn-ins, gilt page edges; xli, [5], 248 pp.;  
[8], 289, [3] pp.; woodcut vignettes, borders, head- and tail-pieces;  
4 engraved plates (2 in each volume). Teerink-Scouten 385.

A French bookdealer's penciled notation on the endpaper of vol. II  
declares this the "Edition originale française," but as there were at  
least three different editions published in Paris in 1727, priority is  
is somewhat difficult to nail down. The very first edition of the  
French translation was apparently published in the Hague earlier the  
same year. In any event, this is a very early Paris edition of  
Desfontaines' translation/adaptation, printed only months after the  
first English edition (October, 1726), a clear indication of the  
instant international popularity of Swift's classic work — despite the  
translator's claim in his preface that "il est clair que ce Livre n'a  
point été écrit pour la France, mais pour l'Angleterre, & que ce qu'il  
renferme de satyre particuliere et directe ne nous touche point."

It's a lovely edition to boot, with four copper-engraved plates, one  
for each of the four lands visited by Lemuel Gulliver, and woodcut  
vignettes and decorations. Very light shelfwear and rubbing to the  
boards and spines, a few occasional small spots to the leaves;  
otherwise exceedingly clean and fresh, firmly bound; handsome morocco  
bindings are sharp and supple, gilt is glossy. A very nice set indeed.