“THERE IS NOTHING QUITE LIKE THEM IN ENGLISH”

WALPOLE, Horace. Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Oxford, to Sir Horace Mann, British Envoy at the Court of Tuscany… Edited by Lord Dover. London: Richard Bentley, 1833. Three volumes. Octavo, 19th-century full brown calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, black morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers. $600.

Second edition of Walpole’s letters to Sir Horace Mann, published in the same year as the first.

Horace Walpole is among the small group of writers of whom it may be said that their letters form their major work. In Walpole's correspondence, printed gradually throughout the nineteenth century, "it is not too much to say that there is scarcely a dull page … For gossip, anecdote, epigram, description, illustration, playfulness, pungency, novelty, surprise, there is nothing quite like them in English" (DNB). Walpole's letters to Mann have particular interest because Mann's absence from England "made every occurrence that happened acceptable to him as news. In consequence his correspondent relates to him every thing that takes place, both in the court and in society… and hence the collection of letters to him becomes a most exact chronicle of the events of the day." "The best letter-writer in the English language" (Sir Walter Scott). Owner inscription.

Some foxing to first and last few leaves only. A very attractive set.