"AN IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE LIFE OF DEFOE'S BOOK": STOCKDALE'S ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF ROBINSON CRUSOE, 1790

DEFOE, Daniel. The Life And Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. London: Printed for John Stockdale, 1790. Two volumes. Octavo, contemporary full mottled calf rebacked, gilt-decorated spines, black morocco spine labels. $2500.

Stockdale's edition of Defoe's classic story of survival, the first edition with vignette title pages, frontispieces and 12 full-page illustrations by Thomas Stothard, a portrait of DeFoe, and a life of DeFoe by George Chalmers, attractively bound.

Of Defoe's immediately popular and enormously influential novel (first published in 1719), Sir Walter Scott wrote, "Perhaps there exists no other work… in the English language, which has been more generally read and more universally admired" (Allibone, 489). "Stockdale's edition was an important contribution to the life of Defoe's book. The handsome set restored the Crusoe text, which, by 1790, had been much abused. George Chalmers' Life of Defoe was the first significant biography of Defoe. Thomas Stothard, R.A., was a known artist, and his extensive and beautiful illustrations made Stockdale's the first edition so finely decorated" (Lovett 89). "Stothard was the first English artist to realize the visual potential of Robinson Crusoe… Stothard depicts Crusoe not as a sinful or isolated figure, but as a social man who leaves his family with regret and who rejoices in his companionship with Friday and, later, with the Spanish lieutenant. Rather than fear, he emphasizes contentment, harmony and the nobility of man… His designs set an idealistic and romantic standard that subsequent artists aspired to equal" (Picturing the First Castaway, Rutgers University). With a listing of DeFoe's writings at end of Chalmers' Life. Publisher's 14-page catalogue bound in at rear of Volume II. ESTC N47632.

Some light foxing to plates and offsetting to surrounding pages, preliminary leaves in both volumeswith light expert cleaning; expert restoration to margins of beautiful contemporary mottled calf boards. A handsome copy.