Books

Second Stockdale edition, using the same plates as the 1790 first edition. This is one of the finest illustrated editions of Robinson Crusoe, which set a standard for illustrating the novel for the next two centuries. Of note is Stothard's representation of Friday, previously a figure of pathos or comedy, but here depicted as "the Noble Savage, the idealized primitive man of uncorrupted virtue so much discussed at the time... Stothard, who learned to draw not from life studies, but from copying antique sculptures and the works of Raphael, interprets his features in the light of classical ideals. The Friday we see here appears to possess those innately good traits that are the marks of Rousseau's vision of what man would be if not corrupted by society" (Richetti, p. 166). Future illustrators followed in presenting Friday in this light, altering perceptions of the character and interpretations of the novel. The wording of the engraved titles preserves the illusion that the work is autobiographical, though it was universally known that Defoe was the author, and Stockdale here appends George Chalmers's biography of the writer. Two vols, octavo (240 x 150 mm), pp. viii, 405, [1]; [vi], 446. Contemporary half sheep, smooth spine lettered and decorated in gilt in compartments with floral design, marbled sides framed with a gilt roll, marbled endpapers, green silk bookmarkers. With 18 copper engraved plates including one on p. 176 not mentioned in the illustration list, all after Thomas Stothard. Loss to two headcaps, superficial splits to joints, skillfully repaired in places, extremities rubbed, wear to corners and foot of spine of vol. II, peripheral browning from binder's paste to sides, contents uniformly lightly toned, occasional foxing, bookmarker of vol. II detached, sporadic light offsetting from plates. A very good set. John Richetti, The Cambridge Companion to Robinson Crusoe, 2018.

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.