"A SAVAGE REALIST WITH AN EYE FOR ECCENTRIC CHARACTER"

SMOLLETT, Tobias. The Works… edited by George Saintsbury. London: Gibbings & Company, Ltd.; Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1895-1900. Twelve volumes. 12mo, three-quarter burgundy polished calf, gilt spines, raised bands, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. $1200.

Limited edition of 1500 copies, with tissue-guarded illustrations by Frank Richards and elaborate woodcut title pages and half titles.

"For inventiveness and diversity of episode, vivid particularlity of detail to the point of caricature and energy of style, Smollett is hardly excelled. He is to the 18th-century novel what Hogarth is to painting—a savage realist with an eye for eccentric character, which he discovers in all classes" (Baugh et al., 961-62). Includes Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Count Fathom, Sir Launcelot Greaves, and Humphry Clinker. CBEL II: 523. With bookplates of previous owner.

An attractively bound set in fine condition.