The English Hermit, or Life and Adventures of Philip Quarll

by Peter Longueville 

London:  A.K. Newman & Co., 1821 

Hardback is overall in GOOD+ condition.

• Gray paper covers printed to resemble a dust jacket, with decorative borders and title in black, publisher's advertisement on back cover. 
• Boards show heavy wear, scuffing, smudges, glue repairs at shoulders, edgewear.  Corners are worn with fraying exposed board.  See photos.  
• Spine is missing; signs of glue repairs, gatherings and stitching are visible, some cracking.  See photos.  
• Binding is fragile but intact.  A repair has been made at front pastedown/fep; separation is evident at title page; also at rear gatherings.  See photos. 
• Pastedowns and feps have some scattered foxing, staining.  See photos. 
• Frontispiece is present; a closed tear at lower spine edge.  See photos. 
• Two title pages present, one illustrated.  See photos.
• Interior is gently age-toned; some rippling of pages in final gathering.  See photos.
• Inside pages are free of writing and intentional marks.
• Text block edges have deckle fore and foot edges. 
• PS2023.1206

234 pages. 3 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches

A scarce edition of Longueville's imaginary shipwreck narrative, an enormously popular work in the vein of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Colonel Jack, and also of Swift's Gulliver's Travels.  The English Hermit "tells the story of one Philip Quarll, shipwrecked on a small island in the South Sea for almost fifty years, whose peace is interrupted by the arrival of the Bristol merchant Edward Dorrington, to whom he relates the history of his life of tranquility."  Describing Quarll's early adventures, his escape from a locksmith apprenticeship, simultaneous marriage to three women, and subsequent experiences at sea, the text moves on to survey the free and easy life he discovers for himself, along with his pet monkey Beaufidelle, on the island where he is shipwrecked.  First published in 1727, the work borrowed substantially from William Dampier's Voyages for its geographical descriptions. 

First published in 1727 and then successively in 1750, 1759, 1768, 1780, 1786, 1790, 1792, 1795, 1797, 1807, 1816, 1823, 1840, 1869, 1870, The English Hermit's publishing history indicates considerable and consistent readers' interest.  This copy of 1821, announced on the cover as "A New Edition," appears very like the 1815 edition published by Dean & Munday, which also includes the engraved pictorial title page and frontispiece. 

A good, unsophisticated copy, rough in appearance but with a clear and very readable text block.  

AS IS! Please see photos. More photos available upon request.

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