Books

Second edition (Teerink AA), published with superficial differences a few weeks after the first. Swift's masterpiece, known ever since as Gulliver's Travels, stands as one of the greatest literary works of the 18th century and among the most famous imaginary voyages ever undertaken. Three distinct editions of Gulliver's Travels were published in the final months of 1726. The first (Teerink A) was published on 28 October, and this, the second edition, followed sometime in the middle of November. Among other points, the second edition is distinguished by having 12 (xii) distinct pages at the beginning of Part I, and 154 pages in Part III. The third edition (Teerink B), which was published in December, is easily identifiable as having continuous pagination throughout the two volumes. Volume II of this copy is, moreover, in a variant state. Although the pagination demonstrates that it is part of the second edition, the general title page used for Vol. II is actually that of the third edition. This title lacks the "The Second Edition" on line 14, and states "Vol. II" on line 7. Lucius Hubbard identifies one such copy in a contemporary binding, and notes that this "economical makeshift" was "probably the work of the publisher" (pp. 24, 31). The frontispiece is in the second state, with the inscription placed round the oval and the tablet with a quotation from the second satire of Persius, protesting the author's purity of heart. This is the state used in most of the copies published in 1726. The publication was chiefly handled by Alexander Pope, with some assistance by John Gay - both contemporaries of Swift at the Scriblerus Club. A week after the book's publication, Gay wrote that "it is universally read, from the Cabinet-council to the Nursery." Two volumes, octavo (191 x 115 mm), pp. xii, 148, vi, 164; vi, 154, viii, 199, [1]. Early 20th-century panelled calf, professionally rebacked, spines numbered in gilt, with raised bands and red morocco labels, covers with double-rule fillet in gilt, turn-ins in blind, marbled endpapers, edges gilt. Housed in custom brown quarter calf slipcase, beige buckram sides. Engraved frontispiece and 6 other plates (4 maps and 2 plans), woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, divisional titles. Light rubbing, hinges cracked but holding firm, minor browning and foxing, several small holes to upper margin of signatures G5-7 (Vol. II): a very good copy. Grolier English 42; Printing and the Mind of Man 185; Rothschild 2107; Teerink 290. Lucius Lee Hubbard, Contributions towards a bibliography of Gulliver's Travels, 1922.

Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, by Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known as Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), is a prose satire by Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirizing both human nature and the 'travellers' tales' literary subgenre.