Raleigh: Selected Writings.

New York, NY Penguin Classics, 1986. Paperback First Edition Thus [1986]; First Printing stated. First Edition Thus [1986]; First Printing stated. Very Near Fine in Wraps: shows only a hint of creasing near the upper corner of the front panel; the pages have tanned slightly due to aging; else flawless; the binding remains square and secure; the text is clean. Free of creases to the backstrip. Free of creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of any underlining, hi-lighting or marginalia or marks in the text. Free of ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, or labels. A handsome, very nearly-new copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing a couple of cosmetic imperfections. Bright and clean. Corners sharp. Very close to 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. (7.8 x 5.15 x 0.65 inches). 304 pages. Edited by Gerald Hammond. Language: English. Weight: 7.5 ounces. Penguin Classics Series. A hardcover edition was published in 1984 by Carcanet. Trade Paperback. The 'History of the World' (which, unfortunately, is incomplete in this collection) is a masterpiece of despair and contempt for the vanity of the world. The 'history', written while Ralegh was in prison, is a recollection of human stupidity, a treatise on the ever-recurring consequences of the worship of power. "Tyranny is more bold, and feareth not to be known, but would be reputed honourable: for it is prosperum et felix scelus, a fortunate mischief, as long as it can subsist. There is no reward or honour ...assigned to those, that know how to increase, or preserve human nature: all honours, greatness, riches, dignities, empires, triumphs, trophies, are appointed for those, that know how to afflict, trouble, or destroy it. Caesar and Alexander, have unmade and slain, each of them, more than a million of men: but they made none, nor left none behind them. Such is the error of Man's judgment, in valuing things according to common opinion." It is among the sagacious moralists, and not the historians, that Raleigh's book truly belongs. Like them, he uses Providence as a stick to beat senseless about the head, but for all that he seems to be without any real hope of deliverance. Nor does Ralegh simply spare himself. He call Courtiers (and Ralegh was indeed a courtier's courtier) vermin. To find another despair so deep, in English letters, we would need to turn to 'King Lear' of Shakespeare. Ralegh was certainly the most underrated prose stylist of Elizabethan England. This is a literary masterpiece.