Books

London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, Strand, 1820. Later edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 2 vol. 8vo. [5], iv-xcii, [1], 2-429, [5]; [5], iv-v, [2], 2-415, [5] pp. Turn-of-the-century morocco (ca. 1899) over marbled boards, spines in six compartments with gilt lettering and decorations, top edges gilt; marbled endpapers and pastedowns. Packer 152. Bound by Tout and Sons, a bindery run by Samuel Tout in Victorian London. Volume one illustrated with a frontispiece, a vignette on the title page, and with ten plates; volume two illustrated with a vignette and nine additional plates. Printed on large paper. A bookseller's advertisement for the set is pasted onto the verso of the front flyleaf (with the seller's "clearance price" of $57.50). ADNB, Gary Scharnhorst, "Loomis, Charles Battell". Bookplate of C.B. Loomis on each front pastedown, with the family crest and motto, "Ne cede malis". Charles Battell Loomis was an American humorist and author. Oxford DNB, M.G. Sullivan,…

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.