first edition Three-Quarter Leather
1821 · London
by Thornton, Alfred
London: Thomas Kelly, 1821. First Edition. Three-Quarter Leather. Very Good Plus. 8vo. 2 volumes, with 31 handcolored plates (15 in vol 1, 16 in vol 2) in the satiric style associated with Thomas Rowlandson or George Cruikshank. xii + 660 pp., Vol 1; x + 620 pp. Vol 2. Plates and interiors in fine condition, generally clean, occasional light foxing on text pages, usual offsetting. Bindings are tight. 3/4 morocco has some shelf wear and rubbing along edges of spine. Spine itself is bright and gilt lettering bright. Altogether, VG+. This work is a loose rendering of the Don Juan tale, taking as its most immediate inspiration Byron's Don Juan, which it is of course lampooning, but there also seems to be some debt owed to Da Ponte, who wrote the libretto to Mozart's opera, "Don Giovanni". The second volume is subtitled "Life in London", and this is an adaptation of Don Juan, or a kind of sequel, with obviously London as a setting. The illustrations can best be described as fun, yet they also give us a glimpse of English citylife at the time. (Inventory #: 000220)