Item #221039 The Quarterly Review. February & May 1810. Vol. III [Nos. V-VI]. Lord Nelson, Sir Walter Scott, contributors Robert SOUTHEY.

Southey on Nelson: First American Edition

The Quarterly Review. February & May 1810. Vol. III [Nos. V-VI].

London Printed. New York: Reprinted for Ezra Sargeant, 1810.

Price: $600.00


About the item

First American Edition. [vi], 438 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Southey on Nelson: First American Edition. Contemporary acid calf. Joints rubbed, label chipped.

Item #221039

This early, interesting volume of the celebrated Quarterly Review is notable for the essay on Nelson by Robert Southey at pp. 218-262, reviewing four biographies. Southey wrote to Charles Danvers, 14 December 1809: “Yesterday I received a letter from Gifford requesting me to review the great life of Nelson, and offering me 20 guineas a sheet to do it .... The Life of Nelson is by Stainer Clark, whose … laying unhallowed hands upon such a subject, I am desired not to spare.” Editor William Gifford was “driven by circumstances to some omissions” as he wrote to Southey, but Murray subsequently reprinted the essay in its entirety as a separate book (1813). It is now recognized as one of the gems of English prose.

Also in this volume are Southey’s review of Vason’s “Authentic Narrative of Four Years’ Residence at Tongataboo, one of the Friendly Islands, in the South Sea”, a contemporary notice of Ricardo’s first separate publication, “The High Price of Bullion …”, and several contributions on travel and exploration by John Barrow. Discussing Dentrecasteaux’s “Voyage à la Recherche de la Pérouse”, Barrow doubts the existence of cannibals (p. 38), a conviction subsequently repeated in other articles. Barrow’s review of Staunton’s “Ta Tsing Leu Lee; being the Fundamental Laws, and a Selection from the Supplementary Statutes of the Penal Code of China” begins “This is an extraordniary book in every point of view … the first book which has ever been translated immediately from the Chinese character into the English language.” Elsewhere, rather disingenuosly, Barrow reviews a French translation of his “Voyage to Cochinchina”.

WITH several reviews by Sir Walter SCOTT: “Fatal Revenge: or the Family of Montorio: a Romance”, Evans’ “Old Ballads”, Aikin’s “Essays on Song Writing”, and Evans’ “Vocal Poetry” (Todd & Bowden 49A for the London edition). The reviews of Holford’s “Wallace: or, the Flight of Falkirk. A Metrical Romance”, pp. 63-69, and “Pursuits of Agriculture, a Satirical Poem, in Three Cantos” are also attributed to Scott. “The Lady of the Lake” is reviewed by George Ellis at pp. 492-517.