An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. With a Life of the Author. Also, A View of the Doctrine of Smith, Compared with that of the French Economists; With a Method of Facilitating the Study of his Works, from the French of M. Garnier. 3 vols (set)

Description

~Original half green polished calf over marbled boards, low raised bands and blind and gilt decor to spines. Replacement brown gilt leather spine labels. Sunning to spines; some rubbing to boards. Mild wear to board corners. All edges speckled red, top edges darkened. Small ink spot to fore-edges of vol. I. Front endpaper of vol. I cracked at gutter. 8vos (14 x 22.1cm). Some foxing, largely to early and late pages. Inscription in old hand to front free endpaper of each vol.: ‘Wroth / Edlesb(o)ro(ugh) / Dunstable / Beds’: almost certainly the Rev’d William Bruton Wroth, Vicar of Edlesborough from 1815 to his death in 1863. A little pencil sidelining to vol. I; pencil doodle of pipe-smoking man to vol. I p. xlix. Includes Advertisements to the third, fourth, and ‘present’ editions at front of vol. I, though in fact the ‘present edition’ Advertisement ‘follows the 1806 edition exactly in stating the novelty of prefixing an account of Smith’s ‘Studies and Doctrines’ to an edition of Smith’ (Tribe). Also as per Tribe, ‘”A Short Account of the Life and Writings of Dr. Adam Smith” pp. i-xxxiv here is the one that originally appeared in 1806, revised as in the Edinburgh 1809 edition excising the quotations in criticism of Playfair, but also with a new section added on the end which refers to Smith’s character and then, two-thirds down p. xxxiii, becoming a straight plagiarism of (Dugald) Stewart as in EPS (Essays on Philosophical Subjects)’. An early edition of Smith’s classic 1776 work, which ‘had no rival in scope or depth when published and is still one of the few works in its field to have achieved classic status, meaning simply that it has sustained yet survived repeated reading, critical and adulatory, long after the circumstances which prompted it have become the object of historical enquiry’ (ODNB). Tribe 108. ~Robust packaging. Tracking can be added to overseas orders on request. Used books are exempt from USA tariffs.