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ANTIQUARIAN, RARE & COLLECTABLE BOOKS & SOUTH EAST ASIAN ANTIQUES
ANTIQUARIAN, RARE & COLLECTABLE BOOKS & SOUTH EAST ASIAN ANTIQUES

The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, 4 Vols, The Sixth Edition, 1785

LAN9841
Original price $125.00 - Original price $125.00
Original price
$125.00
$125.00 - $125.00
Current price $125.00

A popular picaresque classic of European literature, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane was originally written in French by Alain-René Lesage and first published between 1715 and 1735. This English translation – anonymously issued but long attributed to the celebrated novelist Tobias Smollett – helped bring the roguish exploits of Gil Blas to a broad British readership. The work follows its titular hero through a series of vivid misadventures, satirising social pretensions, clerical hypocrisy, and the follies of power. This sixth edition, published circa 1785 in four volumes, is "adorned with cuts" (engravings) and reflects the enduring popularity of the translation during the late 18th century.

The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, A New Translation, by the Author of Roderick Random. Adorned with cuts, neatly engraved. In Four Volumes. The Sixth Edition.

Author is actually unnamed on the title page, but is Alain Rene La Sage. Also unnamed is the translator - Tobias Smollett.

Printed for W. Strahan, J. Rivington, T. Davies, W. Johnnston, T. Longman, W.Nicoll, Richardson and Urquart, G. Robinson, T. Cadell, and R. Baldwin, London. Undated, but believed to be 1785. In 4 volumes complete. The Sixth edition.

A good set in full contemporary speckled calf leather bindings, with gilt ruled spine and red morocco labels with gilt titles (missing labels on 2 volumes). Volume numbers on spine now just blind impressions. Covers with light wear and bumping and some rubbing to joints, but a soundly bound complete set.

Text is bright and clean throughout with attractive engraved plates. Some mild offset marks to endpapers. Some previous owner's inscriptions to endpapers/titles. A few minor age flaws - last 2 pages of Vol II nibbled to top corners and with a 3cm hole to the final text page. Also with library stamp. Vol I missing a title page and does not have pages v-viii in the prelims. One detached (but present) plate in Vol III.

Language: English.

Vol. I: Frontispiece + iii-iv + ix-xii + 312pp; 
Vo. II: iv + 263pp; 
Vol. III: vii + 292pp; and; 
Vol. IV: viii + 276pp. 
All plus plates.

Dimensions: Each volume approximately 179mm x 110mm x c.27mm.

Weight: approximately 1146g (the set- unpacked).