George Lyttelton,
Dialogues of the Dead.
London : Printed for W. Sandby, 1760.
This collection of dialogues was written to emulate the popularity of the ancient Roman author Lucian and the modern French author Fontenelle. The dialogues include exchanges between Louis XIV and Peter the Great, Plato and Fenelon, Addison and Swift, Cortez and Penn, the Duke of Guise and Machiavelli, Boileau and Pope, Cardinal Ximenes and Cardinal Wolsey, Lucian and Rabelais, Locke and Bayle, and Plutarch, Charon and a modern bookseller. The final three dialogues are authored by Elizabeth Montagu, the famous bluestocking. Todd's Edition A. First Edition. First Printing.
$375.00
This collection of dialogues was written to emulate the popularity of the ancient Roman author Lucian and the modern French author Fontenelle. The dialogues include exchanges between Louis XIV and Peter the Great, Plato and Fenelon, Addison and Swift, Cortez and Penn, the Duke of Guise and Machiavelli, Boileau and Pope, Cardinal Ximenes and Cardinal Wolsey, Lucian and Rabelais, Locke and Bayle, and Plutarch, Charon and a modern bookseller. The final three dialogues are authored by Elizabeth Montagu, the famous bluestocking. Todd's Edition A. First Edition. First Printing.
This collection of dialogues was written to emulate the popularity of the ancient Roman author Lucian and the modern French author Fontenelle. The dialogues include exchanges between Louis XIV and Peter the Great, Plato and Fenelon, Addison and Swift, Cortez and Penn, the Duke of Guise and Machiavelli, Boileau and Pope, Cardinal Ximenes and Cardinal Wolsey, Lucian and Rabelais, Locke and Bayle, and Plutarch, Charon and a modern bookseller. The final three dialogues are authored by Elizabeth Montagu, the famous bluestocking. Todd’s Edition A. First Edition. First Printing.
The volume(s) measure about 20.6 cm. by 12.8 cm. by 2.5 cm.
Each leaf measures about 203 mm. by 121 mm.
- Main description
- Condition
- Biography / Bibliography
Main description
The full title reads as follows:
Dialogues of the Dead. London : printed [by Samuel Richardson] for W. Sandby, in Fleet-Street, M.DCC.LX. [1760]
The volume is paginated as follows: xii, 320 p.
The volume collates as follows: A4, a2 – B8, C – X8
Our copy is Todd’s Edition A: sigs. C1, 4-6 (pp.17-18, 23-28) are cancels. P.50 has press figure 2. The headpiece on p.iii represents a globe in the centre.
Todd’s Edition B: pp.1-16, 19-22, 29-192 have been reset; pp.17-18, 23-28 have been reimpressed. Pp. 46, 78 have press figure 8.
Note: There were five editions in 1760. First Edition, First Printing (Todd’s A), First Edition, re-issue (Todd’s B), Second Edition, Third Edition and a Dublin edition.
Condition
Bound in mid 18th Century English quarter-calf, contemporary to the time of publication, and in very good condition.
The binding shows only very slight scuffs and a few spots of peeling upon the boards. The leather upon the hinges is cracked, but the hinges hold very firmly by the cords. The book-block is very strong. The headband is absent from the head of the spine. The spine is divided by raised bands into 6 compartments, with the original red morocco label retained in the second compartment from the head. The corners show moderate wear. Internally, the volume is generally clean, with occasional foxing and toning, but generally with bright pages. The print is clear and crisp, the margins ample throughout. There is a small spot of browning at the upper inner corner of the first and final three leaves,
Biography / Bibliography
Of George Lyttelton, (1709-1773)
Despite his long political career, it was as a poet that Lyttelton was chiefly remembered in the 19th century. But he was author also of many works in prose, chiefly historical and theological. Two, however, are distinguished by their humour. Letters from a Persian in England, to his Friend at Ispahan (1735) ironically comments on the idiosyncrasies of the time from the naïve point of view of an outsider. On attending a wedding ceremony in “one of their Mosques”, for example, the visitor remarks that “Marriage here is esteemed a Religious Ceremony, and that I believe is one Reason among others why so little Regard is paid to it.” Oliver Goldsmith was later to borrow the same approach for his Chinese philosopher in Letters from a Citizen of the World to his Friends in the East (1760). There were, nevertheless, French models for both in the Lettres Persanes of Montesquieu (1721) and the Lettres Chinoises (1735) of Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d’Argens, both of which had been translated soon after into English.
Another work with prior French counterparts was Lyttelton’s Dialogues of the Dead (1760). Though these had Classical precedents, the more immediate models were François Fénelon’s Dialogues des morts anciens et modernes[18] and Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle’s Nouveaux Dialogues des morts, which had also appeared in popular English translations as Dialogues of the Dead. The themes treated in Lyttelton’s are political, literary and philosophical, although the characters sometimes stray from their expected role. Joseph Addison and Jonathan Swift’s conversation is of politics, while Charles XII of Sweden proposes to Alexander the Great an alliance against Alexander Pope for insulting them both in a satire. Included among these conversations were three that Lyttleton had encouraged the bluestocking leader Elizabeth Montagu to write.
Of Elizabeth Montagu (1718 – 1800)
Elizabeth Montagu was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonist, literary critic, and writer who helped organize and lead the bluestocking society. Her parents were both from wealthy families with strong ties to the British peerage and intellectual life. She married Edward Montagu, a wealthy man with extensive holdings, to become one of the wealthiest women of her era. She devoted this wealth to fostering English and Scottish literature and to the relief of the poor. Along with the present dialogues, Montagu authored the important ‘Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare.’
In London, Elizabeth began to be a celebrated hostess. She organized literary breakfasts with Gilbert West, George Lyttelton, and others. By 1760, these had turned to evening entertainments with large assemblies. Card playing and strong drink were forbidden from these convocations, which were now known as blue stocking events. By 1770, her home on Hill Street had become the premiere salon in London. Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, David Garrick, and Horace Walpole were all in the circle. For writers, being introduced there meant patronage, and Montagu patronized a number of authors, including Elizabeth Carter, Hannah More, Frances Burney, Anna Barbauld, Sarah Fielding, Hester Chapone, James Beattie, and Anna Williams. Samuel Johnson’s hostess, Hester Thrale, was also an occasional visitor to Hill Street. Among the blue stockings, Elizabeth Montagu was not the dominant personality, but she was the woman of greatest means, and it was her house, purse, and power that made the society possible. As a literary critic, she was a fan of Samuel Richardson, both Fieldings (Henry Fielding and Sarah Fielding), and Fanny Burney, and she was pleased to discover that Laurence Sterne was a distant relation. She was related to Laurence Sterne through the Botham family. Sterne entrusted her with the disposition of his papers upon his departure for France. He was in ill health and the prospect of his dying abroad was real. She was a supporter of Bishop Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. She also held similar events at her residence in the centre house of the Royal Crescent in Bath.
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