[Rarebooks] fa: WILLIAM HAZLITT - The Spirit of the Age 1825 & Literary Remains 1836

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, July 10. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/gngvps8

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


William Hazlitt: The Spirit of the Age; or, Contemporary Portraits. Paris: Published by A. and W. Galignani, 1825. First continental edition, published the same year as the true first. Two volumes, 12mo (17.5 cm), in early full French calf elaborately tooled in blind, gilt-tooled spine decorations and titles, armorial monograms ("H.S."); marbled page edges and endpapers; [4], 211 pp.; [4], 257 pp.; with the half-title pages.
Word-portraits of his contemporaries by William Hazlitt (1778-1830), arguably the greatest essayist and social critic of the nineteenth century. Included are essays on Coleridge, Wordsworth, Malthus, Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott, William Godwin, James Mackintosh, and many others. Modest wear to the edges, rubbing to the joints, small crack at the head of one joint but all the boards are secure; contents with scattered foxing throughout, heaviest on the first and last few leaves; still, a sound and appealing example. With the bookplates of noted Hazlitt collector Payson G. Gates.

William Hazlitt: Literary Remains of the late William Hazlitt. With a Notice of His Life, by His Son, and Thoughts on His Genius and Writings, by E. L. Bulwer, Esq., M.P. and Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, M.P. London: Saunders and Otley, 1836. FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, 8vo, in later, but not recent, 1/4 leather and paste paper boards with the original printed spine labels laid down; [8], cxli, [1], 362 pp.; [6], 468, 4 pp.; with the half-titles, portrait frontispiece (by Marr after Bewick), and 4 pp. of publisher's adverts at the end of vol. II. Keynes 102.
Rude bump to the text block of vol. I with resultant creases and a short tear to the fore-edges of the early leaves, intermittent toning/browning to the contents, occasional light spotting, otherwise sound, firmly bound. A posthumous collection of essays by Hazlitt accompanied by a life and appreciation of the essayist, arguably the finest social and arts critic of the nineteenth century. Includes essays on the writings of Hobbes, John Locke, the Definition of Wit, on Liberty and Necessity, on the Want of Money, the Main-Chance, the Opera, the Vatican, the Spirit of Monarchy, etc., etc.