Books

Two volumes. 4to. Pp. xii, [16], 3-516; [1], 2-588, [2]. Engraved portrait frontis. after Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the first volume. Second volume illustrated with two plates of Dr. Johnson's handwriting in facsimile. Marbled endpapers. Full speckled calf with gilt filigree borders and inner dentelles, rebacked in period style; repaired corners. Two bookplates: "The High Canon's Library" and "Malo Mori Quam Foedari," possibly the plate of Cardinal Henry Edward Manning. Interiors quite nice. First edition, first state with "gve" (in lieu of "give") on p.135 of Vol. I.Boswell's achievement was not to simply capture the brilliance and wit of his subject, but to provide through meticulous scholarship the complexities of Johnson amid the literary realm of his era.Provenance: Sold at the 1922 Sotheby's sale of The Valuable Library . of the Late Baroness Burdett Coutts.

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.