Books

London: John Stockdale, 1790. First Stockdale Edition. An important, early edition of Defoe's classic 1719 novel – the first with illustrations by Thomas Stothard (1755-1834), and the first to print George Chalmers's biography The Life of Daniel De Foe (bound at the end of Vol.II). Sabin 19285; ESTC T72291; Lowndes II, p.613. Two octavo volumes (23.5cm); three-quarter brown crushed morocco and marbled paper-covered boards bound by Tout & Sons, spines in six compartments, with five raised bands, and titling and decorative elements stamped in gilt on spines; marbled endpapers, top edges gilt; xii,389,[1]pp, with engraved frontispiece, title page, and seven plates of illustrations (Vol.I); vi,456,[14]pp ads, with engraved frontispiece, title page, and six plates of illustrations (Vol.II). Both volumes showing modest wear to spine ends and board edges, some wear to corners, though hinges are sound. Vol.I shows some very faint foxing to text edges, pronounced dust-soil to left margin 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.

The first edition of Robinson Crusoe was published without Defoe's name on it, and is titled 'The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventure of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates.' Identification is typically through comparison with known first edition features (typeset, errors, page count, publisher details, etc).