Letters Concerning the Present State of the French Nation. Containing a Comprehensive View of the Political State, Agriculture, Trade and Commerce, Revenues, Military Power, Government, Ranks of the People, Manners, Laws, Fine Arts and Artists, Theatre, Literature and Writers: With a complete Comparison between France and Great Britain...
by [YOUNG (Arthur):
- Used
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
LONDON, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Printed for W. Nicoll, No 51, St. Paul's Church-Yard. MDCCLXIX. [1769]. . FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 200 x 124 mms., pp. iv [v - xviii, xiv blank], 498, contemporary sheepskin; top and base of spine slightly chipped, corners worn, both joints slightly cracked (but firm), a fair to middling copy. The ESTC does not offer an attribution for Letters Concerning the Present State of the French Nation, but William Cushing, in Anonyms: A Dictionary of Revealed Authorship (1889), says it was written by Arthur Young (1741-1820), agriculturalist and travel writer (p. 372). Letters Concerning the Present State of the French Nation was certainly listed as one of the earliest published works by Arthur Young in the "Bibliography of Arthur Young", prepared by "John P. Anderson, of the British Museum", in Arthur Wollaston Hutton's edition of Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland (1892) (pp. 349, 361). In 1900, Henry Higgs in the DNB duly followed suit in attributing the Letters to Young. Young's book was controversial to say the least, and alarmed The Critical Review, which claimed that "this author's partiality to France is, we think, too glaring to impose upon the most ignorant reader. If he is not a mere tool of that government, and employed by them in this publication, we must be of the opinion that he is a very injudicious writer, because, as we have hinted in the beginning of this article, his labours must have a very disagreeable effect upon the public credit of England" (pp. 434-440). John Gerow Gazley, in his 1973 biography of Young, calls the Letters a "much more pretentious volume" (Life of Arthur Young, p. 47). The Letters are notable also for their zealous defence of Rousseau.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- John Price Antiquarian Books (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 10237
- Title
- Letters Concerning the Present State of the French Nation. Containing a Comprehensive View of the Political State, Agriculture, Trade and Commerce, Revenues, Military Power, Government, Ranks of the People, Manners, Laws, Fine Arts and Artists, Theatre, Literature and Writers: With a complete Comparison between France and Great Britain...
- Author
- [YOUNG (Arthur):
- Book Condition
- Used
- Publisher
- London: Printed for W. Nicoll, No 51, St. Paul's Church-Yard. MDCCLXIX. [1769].
- Keywords
- France economics prose
- Bookseller catalogs
- France;
Terms of Sale
John Price Antiquarian Books
Payment by cheque, credit card, cash. New customers will be invoiced pro forma. Books may be returned within two weeks for any reason; refund within 1 month for any reason; negotiable after that, but no returns after one year.
About the Seller
John Price Antiquarian Books
Biblio member since 2006
LONDON
About John Price Antiquarian Books
I work from home, but I am happy to see customers at almost any time by appointment.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fair
- is a worn book that has complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc....
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Cracked
- In reference to a hinge or a book's binding, means that the glue which holds the opposing leaves has allowed them to separate,...