1880 Rare Victorian Book - Gulliver's Travels and Baron Munchausen, Illustrated
An attractive 1880 combined illustrated edition of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and the fantastic adventures of Baron Munchausen, preserved in its handsome Victorian pictorial cloth binding and complete with the five full-page illustrations.
Author: Jonathan Swift; Baron Munchausen traditionally attributed to Rudolf Erich Raspe.
Title: Gulliver’s Travels and Baron Munchausen.
Publisher: New York: John Wurtele Lovell, 14 & 16 Astor Place, 1880.
Edition: Illustrated combined edition, 1880.
Language: Text in English.
Pages: Gulliver’s Travels, 333 pages; Travels of Baron Munchausen, 133 pages.
Size: Approximately 7.5 x 5 inches.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s blue cloth binding, elaborately decorated to the front board and spine in black and gilt with floral and pictorial ornament. Gilt-lettered title panels to the front board and spine. Light rubbing and minor wear at the extremities, with some modest age-related surface marking, but the binding remains firm, bright and attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good. The text is generally clean and well preserved with light age toning and occasional scattered foxing. The full-page illustrations show noticeable toning, particularly to the surrounding paper, as shown. Hinges and text block remain sound.
Illustrations: Including five full-page black-and-white illustrations, depicting scenes from both Gulliver’s Travels and Baron Munchausen. The plates remain well preserved despite the expected age toning.
Estimate: (USD $175–200).
The book: This handsome Victorian volume brings together two of the great imaginary travel narratives of English literature. First published in 1726, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels follows Lemuel Gulliver through a succession of extraordinary lands, including Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and the country of the Houyhnhnms, combining adventure with a brilliant satire of politics, society and human nature.
The second part contains the extravagant adventures of Baron Munchausen, filled with impossible journeys, extraordinary feats and comic exaggerations. The pairing of the two works is especially appealing, and this 1880 Lovell edition is enhanced by its decorative blue cloth binding and five full-page illustrations, making it an attractive example of late nineteenth-century illustrated publishing.
The authors: Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, clergyman and satirist whose works include A Tale of a Tub, A Modest Proposal and, most famously, Gulliver’s Travels. His combination of fantasy, irony and social criticism made him one of the greatest prose satirists in the English language.
The literary Baron Munchausen was inspired by the historical German nobleman Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Münchhausen (1720–1797), who became known for his exaggerated tales of military and hunting adventures. The earliest English literary collection of these stories, published anonymously in 1785, is generally attributed to Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736–1794), and the character subsequently became one of the great figures of comic fantastic literature.