![[SWIFT, Jonathan]. A Tale of a Tub. Written for the universal improvement of mankind. To which is added, An Account of a Battel between the Antient and Modern Books in St. James’s Library. London: John Nutt, 1704.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/NYR/2015_NYR_12435_0167_000(swift_jonathan_a_tale_of_a_tub_written_for_the_universal_improvement_o120509).jpg?w=1)
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[SWIFT, Jonathan]. A Tale of a Tub. Written for the universal improvement of mankind. To which is added, An Account of a Battel between the Antient and Modern Books in St. James’s Library. London: John Nutt, 1704.
Three works as issued in one volume, 8° (187 x 111mm). With front advertisement leaf and final blank. (Title and facing advertisement slightly discoloured, occasional light all-over browning, a few small soil marks.) Red morocco gilt by Riviere and Son, gilt edges (rebacked, preserving old spine compartments).
FIRST EDITION, published 10 May 1704. Second state with blank after “furor” p. 320, line 10, completed in manuscript to read “furor uterinus”. “A Full and True Account of the Battle” and “A Discourse concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit” each have a separate dated title-page. Ross and Woolley describe “Swift’s four-shilling volume of 1704” as “the masterpiece of his early life, balancing and matching Gulliver’s Travels, the imaginative crown of his later years”. By somewhat questionable tradition the composition of the Tale of a Tub goes back to Swift’s university days, but the bulk of the writing certainly dates from 1689, the beginning of his employment by Sir William Temple at Moore Park; the Battle of the Books is given a specific date of composition of 1697 in the opening address of “The Bookseller to the Reader.” The modern editors point out the enormous stimulation Swift must have obtained from constant access to Temple’s library, “since so much of the satire in the volume is focused on books and reading” (A Tale of a Tub, ed. A. Ross and D. Woolley (Oxford, 2008) ix). Rothschild 1992; Teerink 217.
Three works as issued in one volume, 8° (187 x 111mm). With front advertisement leaf and final blank. (Title and facing advertisement slightly discoloured, occasional light all-over browning, a few small soil marks.) Red morocco gilt by Riviere and Son, gilt edges (rebacked, preserving old spine compartments).
FIRST EDITION, published 10 May 1704. Second state with blank after “furor” p. 320, line 10, completed in manuscript to read “furor uterinus”. “A Full and True Account of the Battle” and “A Discourse concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit” each have a separate dated title-page. Ross and Woolley describe “Swift’s four-shilling volume of 1704” as “the masterpiece of his early life, balancing and matching Gulliver’s Travels, the imaginative crown of his later years”. By somewhat questionable tradition the composition of the Tale of a Tub goes back to Swift’s university days, but the bulk of the writing certainly dates from 1689, the beginning of his employment by Sir William Temple at Moore Park; the Battle of the Books is given a specific date of composition of 1697 in the opening address of “The Bookseller to the Reader.” The modern editors point out the enormous stimulation Swift must have obtained from constant access to Temple’s library, “since so much of the satire in the volume is focused on books and reading” (A Tale of a Tub, ed. A. Ross and D. Woolley (Oxford, 2008) ix). Rothschild 1992; Teerink 217.