1855 Rare Book - Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality by Edward Young

Author: Edward Young.
Title: Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality.
Publisher: Philadelphia, John B. Perry, 1855.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 5 x 3.5 inches.
Pages: 318 pages + publisher's catalog.
Binding: Attractive and very good publisher’s deluxe red morocco binding, lavishly gilt-stamped on both boards and spine with elaborate scrollwork and a central crown motif (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. All edges gilt. 
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing toning or staining - as shown, contains a gift inscription on the front free endpaper: “A Present for Elisabeth Ross from her friend Jane Jebb” as well as a faint ownership stamp: “Arthur G. Hopper.” - as shown).  
Illustrations: Illustrated with a steel-engraved frontispiece of Edward Young and an engraved extra title page with a harp and ruins vignette. At the rear, the publisher’s advertisement includes a preview of Paradise Lost by Milton and contains four additional full-page wood-engraved illustrations (captioned, including “The Hogans at Cathleen’s bed”), serving both as a promotional and supplementary visual section.

Estimate: (Scarce with no or few other copies of this Perry Edition available for sale worldwide).

The book: This beautifully bound 1855 edition of Night Thoughts by Edward Young captures the solemn elegance of one of the 18th century's most meditative poetic works. Popular throughout the Victorian era, Night Thoughts explores themes of mortality, the soul’s journey, and divine contemplation. The presence of both a touching personal inscription and the unusual publisher’s catalogue featuring narrative illustrations add layers of historical and sentimental appeal. This Perry edition is notable for its decorative binding and for the publisher’s decision to pair it with promotional illustrations for Milton’s Paradise Lost—a fascinating juxtaposition of two monumental English works on the afterlife.

The author: Edward Young (1683–1765) was an English poet, dramatist, and cleric best known for his long philosophical poem The Complaint: or Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality. First published in a series of nine “nights” between 1742 and 1745, the poem was widely read and influential in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly among Romantic and Victorian thinkers. Young’s work is introspective and moralistic, and remains a significant text in the tradition of English religious poetry.