Retrospection: or A Review of the Most Striking and Important Events, Characters, Situations, and their Consequences, which the last Eighteen Hundred Years have Presented to the View of Mankind.
Place and Imprint: London: Printed for John Stockdale, 1801.
Edition: First edition.
Bibliographical References: Rothschild 1553; NCBEL II, 1595.
Condition: Edges a little rubbed; some light foxing; very good copy.
Book ID: 28558
Physical Description
2 vols, 4to, contemporary half calf, blue paste-paper boards, red morocco spine labels, gilt rules and lettering. Frontis portrait. Without the half-titles and eight-page publisher's catalogue in volume two, but with the four pages of Stockdale's proposal for the publication of maps.Comments
A sweeping chronological history of the world in 540 pages, from the birth of Christ to 1800, told in the entertaining, informal style of Hester Lynch Piozzi (1741-1821). Retrospection was written and published to celebrate (and profit from) the turn of the century, for which Piozzi proposed a £1,000 advance. John Stockdale agreed to her terms, but Retrospection was not a commercial success. It is an early example of a history of the world by a woman - though not the first. It took Piozzi at least five years to complete.Price: $500.00
See all items by HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI, THRALE