Philosophical Rhapsodies ...: Containing Reflections on the Laws, Manners, Customs and Religions, of certain Asiatic, Afric, and European Nations.

RARE & WIDE-RANGING WORK ON SOCIAL HISTORY
first edition 3 vols. tall 8vo. [2 (half-title)], vi, 258, [2 (advts.)], (259)-286 (index to vol.I); [4 (half-title & title)], [2 (corrigenda)], 463; [4 (half-title & title)], [2 (corrigenda)], 315pp., handsome contemporary tree calf, smooth spines richly decorated in gilt in panels and with red and green morocco labels gilt, edges dyed yellow, some slight foxing but a very nice and most handsome copy. Rare and attractive copy.
Contemporary neat signature of Marcus Wright on endpapers and slightly later decorative small printed label of 'M. G. v. Fock'.

ESTC t125368 - locating copies in the British Isles only in B.L., N.L.S, Oxford, John Soane's House and John Rylands, with 2 in Europe, 13 in North America & 1 in Australia.
The index to vol.I was apparently prepared as something of an afterthought so that the advertisement leaf appears at the end of the main text and not at the end of the book. There are no such irregularities in the other two volumes where the index was obviously printed at the same time as the main text. Sulivan (1752-1806), a member of a family from Dromeragh, Co. Cork, spent most of his early life in India with his elder brother. On his return from India he toured Europe and Britain and eventually settled in London. He was elected to the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society, and was a Member of Parliament, 1787-1796 and from 1802. He published several books between 1779 and 1794, on Indian history, on his travels in Britain, and on European and Asian history. This rare work on social history draws on both direct observation and on the writings and reports of others. The work has an unusual structure, being organized into "fragments" rather than conventional chapters, and combines fiction, philosophy, observations on the history and peoples on foreign lands, notably China, Japan, Tartary, India, Greece and the Middle East.
Marcus Wright is probably the person of that name who was a son of John Wright (1758-1840) of Langar, Nottinghamshire and his wife Elizabeth Beresford of Ashbourne. Marcus (d.1882) of Birds Grove, Derbyshire, served as British consul at Wiberg in Finland and married a Scandanavian woman, which helps explain the Scandanavian gentry label of von Fock.