“what a master of composition Fielding was! upon my word, I think the Oedipus Tyrannus, the Alchemist, and Tom Jones the three most perfect plots ever planned.” – Coleridge
FIELDING, HENRY. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
London: A. Millar , 1749
Six volumes. With all of the cancels listed in Rothschild 851 as well as one not noted there (N12 in vol. II). Contemporary calf. Some wear, minimal restoration. A very good set, far better than normally encountered. Half morocco cases.
FIRST EDITION of the greatest English novel of the eighteenth century and one of the most influential works of fiction ever published. Fielding broke away from the epistolary form of Richardson, devising instead what he called “comic epics in prose,” the first modern novels.
The entire first printing of 2000 copies was bought up by the London trade, prompting the publisher to print 1500 more copies before publication. Those 1500 second edition copies have the early errors corrected and thus do not contain the errata leaf that distinguishes the first edition from the three 1749 editions that followed.
Samuel Johnson “read it through without stopping” (Boswell) and called Tom Jones “perhaps the only book of which, being printed off betimes one morning, a new edition was called for before night” (Piozzi’s Anecdotes). Edward Gibbon wrote, “The romance of Tom Jones, that exquisite picture of human manners, will outlive the palace of the Escurial and the imperial eagle of the house of Austria” (Memoirs).
Rothschild 851
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