Books

Quarto, [20], 399, [17], [2], vi, iv, [4], 280 pages. In Very Good condition. Bound in three-quarter calf with blue cloth boards and gilt lettering to paneled spine. Boards show some rubbing and wear to binding, wear to front hinge, and cracking to upper hinges. Text block shows very mild scattered foxing, 1905/1921 ink ownership and notes to front endpapers, and moderate foxing to title page of Paradise Regained. Marbled endpapers. Two books bound together; Paradise Lost with two engraved portraits after Vertue, a half-title, and an index.; Paradise Regained with engraved title page, folding map; parts of the volume have been trimmed close at the top edge, with no loss to text, map has been very closely trimmed, with very small loss to border line; map with two pieces of backing. Either of the Dunster editions are rare, with the 1800 being the scarcer of the two. HS Consignment. Shelved in Case 0. "A reissue of the 1795 edition, printed for T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, with a different titlepage, an additional dedication leaf dated September 20, 1799, printed by John Nichols, and two leaves containing a letter signed C. D., i.e. Charles Dunster, dated April 12, 1800, printed by John Nichols." [ESTC]. "This is the first separate edition of PR with the range of editorial material to qualify as a variorum. A revised second edition was published in 1800. Dunster wrote the arguments to each book himself, as Milton had not provided any" [Coleridge]. ESTC: T133945, T134618; Wickenheiser 631, 1589. 1340157. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. The first version, published in 1667, consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse.