Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London relative to that event. In a Letter intended to have been sent to a gentleman in Paris.

Beschreibung

The stated seventh edition, but third edition, fifth impression, by Todd's count, of the author's instantly popular treatise, held up to this day as the foundational text of conservatism, in a well-preserved contemporary binding. This edition, published around a month after the first, is the last, definitive version revised by Burke. In the escalating iconoclasm of the French Revolution, Burke perceives an arrogant and dangerous conceit that humans could develop effective social and political systems from scratch. He asserts that "any revolution that did not bring real liberty, which comes from the administration of justice under a settled constitution without bias from the mob, was no liberty. In the eternal debate between the ideal and the practical, the latter never had a more powerful or moving advocate, nor one whose ideals were higher" (PMM). Burke's polemic prompted a spate of responses, of which Thomas Paine's Rights of Man came to rival the Reflections for influence and popularity. That popularity is attested by the rapidity with which Burke's new editions and impressions were published - several editions were printed in the last two months of 1790 alone, each with a substantial print-run. Provenance: Calverly Bewicke (1755-1815), a broadly Whiggish MP and lieutenant colonel in the Durham militia, with his engraved armorial bookplate on the front pastedown. Todd 53j. See Printing and the Mind of Man 239 (first edition). Octavo (209 x 126 mm). Contemporary speckled calf, smooth spine ruled in gilt and with red morocco label, lower edge yellow. Book label of John Stephens (1948-2006), bibliographer, to front pastedown. Rear joint near imperceptibly restored. Very light rubbing to extremities, small strip to front cover, faint browning and foxing to endpapers and outer leaves: a fine, skilfully-restored copy. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 169159

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