Books

1721. Hamburg, Wierings Erben, 1721 (Part 1); Leipzig, Weidmann, 1721 (part 2); Leyden, Peter Robinson, 1721 (part III & IV). 8vo. Four parts uniformly bound in two contemporary full calf with four raised bands and gilt lettering to spine. Small paper-label to upper part of spines. Wear to extremities. Leather on spine cracked and scratches and soiling to bords. Front board on vol. 3/4 bended with outer margin partly broken off. Annotation in contemporary hand to front free end-paper in both volumes. Title-page and first leaves in vol. 1 soiled and with reapir. Folded plate closely trimmed with loss to lower margin, several tears, with some loss. Internally generally a good copy. [Vol. 1 & 2:] (14), 463, (1), (14), 448 pp. + frontispiece, 1 folded plate, 1 map and 5 plates (wanting 1).; [Vol. 3 & 4:] (6), 624 pp. + frontispiece and 2 plates. The very rare second edition of the first German translation of Dafoe’s Robinson Crusoe and the equally rare first German translation of…

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, is one of the earliest and most influential novels in the history of English literature. It is a fictional autobiography of the title character, a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued. The story is widely perceived as a comment on the British Imperialism of the age and the emerging ideology of the 'self-made man', and it reflects on the author's vast array of experiences.