Author: GIBBON (Edward):
Title: An Essay on the Study of Literature. Written Originally in French...Now first translated into English.
Description: London: Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt..., 1764. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. 8vo, 182 x 115 mms., pp. [viii], 168, recent full panelled calf, gilt spine, red morocco label, in period style, with the amusing armorial bookplate of John Yorke on the front paste-down end-paper; title-page a little scored, lacks the two leaves of adverts. Gibbon did not himself translate this edition of his Éssai, though he examined it before it was printed. The translation does leave something to be desired and contains some spectacular misapprehensions of French: for example, "si la Physique a ses Buffons" is translated as "if Physics hath its buffoons." Even so, it was favourably received by the English press, with the Critical Review commenting that "The translation before us is void of that stiffness and those improprieties which we observed in the original French; but after all, we cannot help wishing that, if a translation of this piece was wanting, Mr Gibbon would have taken that opportunity of giving us something more of his own." Norton 6. Rothschild 939.

Keywords: aesthetics literary criticism prose


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