Selected Essays of William Hazlitt 1778 : 1830
London: The Nonesuch Press, 1930
First edition. Imperial 16mo (overall 12.7 x 14.5 cm, 7-3/4 x 5 in.). The
Centenary Edition of Hazlitt’s Selected Essays, part of the
Compendious series and reissued in six subsequent editions. Green
buckram covers with beveled edges, spine titled in gilt, top edges stained
yellow, all edges cut; original buff printed dust wrapper. Collates [1 l.],
1 l. (half-title), 1 l. (title), pp. v-xxiv (contents, introduction), pp.
[1]-807, 1 p. (publication statement), [1 l.]. Almost negligible traces
of edgewear on extremities of covers, edges negligibly dusty, else fine,
in a very good dust jacket preserved in a clear Brodart plastic cover, very
slightly soiled and creased, neatly reinforced with paper tape on inside
margins and price-clipped lower inside front flap. With the engraved bookplate
of Kenneth Garth Huston (1926-1987), discerning collector of Geoffrey Keynes
material. Keynes attributes a “spirit of resentfulness” in Hazlitt
in part to “the constant drinking of a great deal of strong tea”
and judges that “[T]his quality, added to his sincerity and enthusiasm,
gives Hazlitt’s writings an unusual taste – a tang which prevents
them from being more than very occasionally dull. Every essay is a human
document and conveys its message almost directly, as it seems, from Hazlitt’s
mouth to the reader’s ear, the impression being strengthened by the
conversational quality of his writing. He is constantly thinking aloud,
and his manner of thinking is racy, vigorous, virile.” Dreyfus 69.
Price: SOLD
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