THE REPUBLIC OF FOOLS: BEING THE HISTORY OF THE STATE AND PEOPLE OF ABDERA, IN THRACE. Translated from the German of C. M. von Wieland, by Henry Christmas. London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., 7, Leadenhall Street, 1861. 12mo, two volumes: pp. [i-v] v [vii] viii-xiv [xv-xvi] [1] 2-312; [i-iii] iv-viii [1] 2-311 [312: blank] + 32-page publisher's catalogue dated "1 January 1861" inserted at rear, publisher's decorated purple pebbled cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panels stamped in gold, top edge untrimmed, terra cotta coated endpapers. First edition in English. This satire which "comically parodies the parochial nature of small-town life in Germany ... became Wieland's most popular and reprinted work ... Wieland started work on GESCHICHTE DER ABDERITEN in 1773 and published a first draft in DER TEUTSCHE MERKUR in 1774. However, he continued to refine the work over the next four years, finally publishing it in two volumes at Leipzig in 1781. It is a work of enduring popularity and has been frequently reprinted, either in full or in excerpts, or in collections of Wieland's works, up to the present day." - Howgego, Encyclopedia of Exploration: Invented and Apocryphal Narratives of Travel W11. This translation into English by Henry Christmas includes his "Note on Philosophical Romance, by the Translator," volume II, pp. 261-311, a survey of earlier utopian works. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 209. Negley, Utopian Literature 1191. Not in Bloch. Some rubbing to cloth at spine ends and corner tips, some tanning to spine panels and edges, a very good copy. (#157099).
Price: $450.00
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