Books

10 vols; small 8vo (17 x 11.5 cm); extra-illustrated with over 100 engraved plates, prints, and facsimile letters, including title vignettes and frontispieces, and folding plates; later full tan calf by Morrell, ruled in gilt, gilt spine, contrasting morocco lettering-pieces, top edge gilt others uncut, internally very clean, minor wear to panels, rear joint in vols. II and III cracked internally but holding, near fine. A handsomely bound extra-illustrated set of Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. This revised edition by the Anglo-Irish MP and writer John Wilson Croker (1780-1857) was bitterly attacked in the Edinburgh Review by the Whig historian Thomas Macaulay (1800-1859), possibly in an act of revenge following a hostile exchange in the House of Commons between Croker and Macauley on the subject of reform. 'This version contains both the original texts, augmented by the additional writings of the biographer and his subject, and the very valuable new and related material which Croker introduced in his 1831 edition' (Pottle).

James Boswell's 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' is regarded as one of the greatest biographies written in the English language. It provides an in-depth and vivid recounting of the life of Samuel Johnson, a writer and critic who was a towering figure in 18th-century British literature.