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Works, The
London: John Murray, 1821. Item #06455
“Wit, Scandal, and the Georgian Stage:
Sheridan’s Collected Works in Handsome Calf (John Murray, 1821)”
SHERIDAN, Richard Brinsley. The Works of the Late Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan. In two volumes. London: John Murray, 1821.
Two octavo volumes (8 7/16 x 5 3/8 inches; 215 x 136 mm.). xvi, [1-3], 4-398, [2]; vi, [1-3], 4-408, [2] pp.
Early twentieth century three quarter brown calf over marbled boards ruled in gilt, spines with four shallow raised bands ruled in gilt, red and black calf labels lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, marbled edges. Early ink signature on front blanks, some occasional very light foxing or staining, spines lightly faded. Still an excellent example.
A pleasing early nineteenth-century edition of Sheridan’s collected works, bringing together the writings of one of the great figures of the late Georgian stage and parliament. Best remembered for The Rivals, The School for Scandal, and The Critic, Sheridan remains among the most brilliant comic dramatists in English, combining theatrical wit, epigrammatic dialogue, and acute social observation in a manner that secured his enduring reputation both on the stage and in print.
Issued five years after Sheridan’s death, this John Murray edition preserves the author’s literary reputation in a format at once dignified and highly readable, and would have appealed to the cultivated nineteenth-century library in which drama, oratory, and polite letters stood side by side.
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (1751-1816) was an Anglo-Irish playwright, writer and Whig politician who sat in the British House of Commons from 1780 to 1812, representing the constituencies of Stafford, Westminster and Ilchester. The owner of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London, he wrote several prominent plays such as The Rivals (1775), The Duenna (1775), The School for Scandal (1777) and A Trip to Scarborough (1777). He served as Treasurer of the Navy from 1806 to 1807. Sheridan died in 1816 and was buried at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. His plays remain a central part of the Western canon and are frequently performed around the world.
Price: $450.00