GOLDSMITH, Oliver. The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith (IN FINE BINDING WITH FINE HAND-COLOURED AQUATINTS)

With remarks, attempting to ascertain, chiefly from local observation, the Actual Scene of the Deserted Village; and illustrative engravings by Mr. Alkin, from drawings taken upon the spot. By Rev. R.H. Newell, B.D. London: Printed by Ellerton and Henderson, Johnson’s Court, Fleet Street for Suttaby, Evance, and Company, Stationers’ Court, Ludgate Street, 1811. Quarto. pp. [2], iv, v, [1], 8-182. Contemporary dark purple straight-grain morocco, covers framed by gilt fillets and a gilt floral roll. Spine divided into six compartments by five thick raised bands, title in gilt direct in second, the remainder tooled in gilt. Board edges ruled in gilt, turn-ins gilt. New marbled endpapers. Illustrated with six fine hand-coloured aquatints and one vignette. Minor wear to corners. A fine and very attractive copy.
COPAC with 6 locations only. WorldCat 2.
Oliver Goldsmith was born in 1728 in Pallas, County Longford, the son of a clergyman; he was educated at T.C.D. After a period of wandering, Goldsmith settled in London where he became a famous poet, dramatist, novelist and occasional writer. He was a constant companion of Dr. Johnson who greatly admired Goldsmith’s most famous poems, The Deserted Village, and The Traveller. The first of these recounts the effect of the ‘luxury’ of the modern world on the traditional values of the countryside, then being rapidly de-populated, and the second the feelings of the ‘pensive’ traveller whose fortune leads him ‘to traverse realms alone, - And find no spot of the all the world my own’. Despite their sentimentalism, these two poems remain among the most popular written in English in the eighteenth century.
With a dedication to William Payne. Hand-coloured illustrations are aquatints by Samuel Alken after Rev. Newell. The plates included are: Lishoy Mill; Kilkenny-West Church; Hawthorn Tree; South View from Goldsmith’s Mount; Parsonage; School-house; The Mount and Copse.

[Cat 157]