THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. With Marginal Comments and Markings From Two Copies Annotated by Hester Lynch Trale Piozzi Prepared for Publication With an Introduction by Edward G. Fletcher

3 volumes. LIMITED EDITION ONE OF ONLY 1500 HAND-NUMBERED COPIES. With frontispiece portraits in each volume, being: Samuel Johnson from the famous painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Mrs. Thrale from a George Dance drawing in the National Portrait Gallery; and James Boswell, also from a George Dance drawing in the National Portrait Gallery. Tall 8vo, publisher's original gray cloth, the spines red morocco-style labels gilt lettered and decorated, in the original single slipcase of red paper-covered boards, the back with a large cream paper label printed in red. lviii, 466; 488; 473 pp. A very fine set, the books in essentially mint condition, no evidence of use or age, the slipcase is handsome and bright with a little rubbing to the edges and corners.

Edizione: and very handsome edition of this great classic in the language, one of only 1500 copies printed. celebrated for its intimacy and vividness, boswell's life of johnson "is one of the best books in the world. it is assuredly a great, very great work. homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic poets,--shakespeare is not more decidedly the first of dramatists,--demosthenes is not more decidedly the first of orators, than boswell is the first of biographers." (macauley, in the edinburgh review, 1831). boswell learned a great deal about the art of biography from his subject, and brought to his task boundless curiosity, persistence, and zest.<br> this is also a very readable set. the text is that of the eighth edition, published in 1816. it reproduces notes made in the margins of a copy of that edition, and in a copy of the fifth edition, by hester thrale-piozzi. ms. thrale-piozzi is an important source on dr. johnson; she published anecdotes of the late samuel johnson in 1786 and also their letters to each other in 1788. these sources, like the marginal notes found within these volumes, help to fill out the somewhat biased picture of johnson as presented by james boswell. this is the first time these notes were publicly available, thus this is an important edition.