[Rarebooks] fa: BERNARD DE MANDEVILLE: FABLE OF THE BEES or PRIVATE VICES, PUBLICK BENEFITS - 1728

[ArCh]

Auction ends Sunday, April 16. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/39s48v7h

Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

[Bernard de Mandeville:] The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits. With an Essay on Charity and Charity-schools. And a Search into the Nature of Society. The fifth edition. To which is added, A Vindication of the Book from the Aspersions contain'd in a Presentment of the Grand-Jury of Middlesex, and an abusive Letter to Lord C. London: Printed for J. Tonson, at Shakespear's-Head, over-against Katherine-Street in the Strand, MDCCXXVIII [1728]. Octavo (20.5 cm) bound in modern half calf and marbled boards with gilt tooled decorations to the spine, gilt-lettered spine label; [16], 477, [1] pp.; woodcut head- and tail pieces and initials. ESTC T77712.

Mandeville's cynical and controversial classic, in some ways a precursor of Adam Smith and laissez-faire economics, in which he argues that virtue derives from the practice of selfish instincts, that seemingly base behavior produces positive economic effects, and that in fact public prosperity is dependent upon private vices. Denounced by many as immoral when it first appeared, the work remained popular and influential throughout the eighteenth century and is still admired for "the real acuteness of the writer as well as the vigour of its style" (DNB). Gordon Gecko ("Greed is good") was presumably an admirer.

Browning to the title-page and, to a lesser degree, to the first and last few leaves, mild toning and occasional offsetting and small spots elsewhere, but the the contents are generally very clean and fresh, firmly bound in a handsome modern binding. Front paste-down with the bookplate of Egerton Parker.