The Poetical Works

THE

POETICAL WORKS

OF

ALEXANDER POPE,

WITH HIS LAST

CORRECTIONS, ADDITIONS,

AND

IMPROVEMENTS.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

E D I N B U R G :

Apollo Press

Anno 1780.

DESCRIPTION

(ii) + lxxvii + 79pp to 250pp + (ii)

(ii) + 249pp + (ii)

(ii) + 260pp + (ii)

(ii) + 280pp + (ii)

Books measure 130mm x 85mm approximately.

Bound in period dark tan speckled calf. Spine gilt-ruled bands and green and maroon twin-ruled, gilt-boxed author and volume labels. Gilt-ribbed board edges. Full-page tissue-guarded engravings to the front of each volume.

CONDITION

The bindings are all holding very firm. Boards retain a nice rich sheen with some general very minor wear, the odd mark, and surface scratches, and moderate bumping to corners. A rather small loss of leather to the spine top of Vol II.

Internally the pages are generally very clean throughout with just occasional spots and some small foxing patches. End-papers show some marginal shadowing and a little heavier spotting. Engravings, versos and tissue guards are more heavily stained.

Overall, a very handsome set of smaller volumes in very good overall condition.

Please always refer to photo images for a clearer indication of condition.

We are always happy to provide further photo images if required.

INTERESTING

Alexander Pope (1688 to 1744) was a poet and satirist of the Augustan period and one of its greatest artistic exponents. There is a wealth of academic publications and critique surrounding Pope. Considered the foremost English poet of the early 18th century and a master of the heroic couplet, he is best known for satirical and discursive poetry, including The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad, and An Essay on Criticism, and for his translation of Homer.

After Shakespeare, he is the second-most quoted author in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, some of his verses having entered common parlance (eg ; damning with faint praise). By the mid-18th century, new fashions in poetry emerged. A decade after Pope's death, Joseph Warton claimed that Pope's style of poetry was not the most excellent form of the art. The Romantic movement that rose to prominence in early 19th-century England was more ambivalent towards his work.