Beschreibung:

DEFOE, Daniel (ca. 1660-1731)]. The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner . [ With :] The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; being the second and last part of his life . [ And :] Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: with his vision of the angelick world. London: W[illiam] Taylor, 1719-1720. 3 volumes, 8° (190 x 111mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Crusoe by Clark and Pine in part I, folding engraved frontispiece map of the world in part II, folding engraved frontispiece map of Crusoe's island by Clark and Pine in part III. Titles to parts II and III with woodcut vignette of a ship. Advertisement leaves as called for at the end of each volume. (Titles short at margins, A2 of part one and final leaf of part three also short, A2 and O8 of part one with closed tear, O4 and Q2 repaired at margin, Aa2 with slightly torn corner, H7 and R3 of part three cropped at margin, map of Crusoe's island with closed tears, occasional browning, minor soil marks, some leaves washed.) Red morocco gilt by Riviere and Son, gilt edges (upper joints of first volume split). Provenance : Arthur A. Houghton, Jr (morocco booklabels; his sale, Christie's, 13 June 1979, lot 170). FIRST EDITION OF ALL THREE PARTS OF DEFOE'S MASTERPIECE, which were hastily printed and corrected under the press. This copy has the following issue points: part one with colon after 'London' on title-page [Hutchins' first variant], catchword 'always' on recto of leaf A2; 'apyly' on verso [first variant], Z4r with the words 'Pilot' and 'Portuguese' correctly spelt [second variant]; 12-line errata on Aa6v. Part two with A4v of the preface blank, 'Farther' correctly spelt at the head of B1, and p. 295 correctly numbered [Hutchins' second variant in all but the last point]. Part three has S7v with catchword 'The' [Hutchins' first variant]. A8v has the advertisement for the third edition of part one and the second edition of part two, 'w' in 'know' on F5r, line 13, is correctly aligned, M5v, line 1, reads 'way with a', no asterisk under 'out' on O1v, R3r has the 'm' correctly aligned in catchword 'from'; I2r is a cancel with the reading 'The selling or writing a Parable.' The Life of Robinson Crusoe , 'a just History of Fact' without 'any Appearance of Fiction in it,' was written when Defoe was nearly 60 and published on 23 April, 1719, with immediate success. Seven editions appeared in the author's lifetime along with various piracies and abridgements, and Defoe's matter-of-fact fiction has never lost the power to engage readers and enrich publishers. The Farther Adventures , published barely four months later on 18 August, was a brilliant sequel, describing Crusoe's return to the island after a lapse of seven years, the hero's age having then reached a ripe 61. The final part, the Serious Reflections , appeared on 4 August 1720, almost a year after part two, and was the only part not to be reprinted by Taylor. A prominent London bookseller, William Taylor died five years after the appearance of the first volume, leaving an estate 'reputed to be worth between forty and fifty thousand pounds.' Grolier English 41; Furbank and Owens 201, 204 and 210; Hutchins Robinson Crusoe and its Printing 1719-1731 pp. 52ff., 97ff. and 122ff; Moore 412, 417 and 436; PMM 180; Rothschild 775.