SWIFT, JONATHAN - Miscellaneous Works, Comical & Diverting
1720. 1st (pirated) edition, London (in reality, The Hague): Printed by Order of the Society de propagando, &c (in reality, Thomas Johnson).
According to Teerink's bibliographies of Swift, Thomas Johnson was the publisher of this volume, and it was printed in The Hague (where Johnson also did business), not in London, despite the title page's claim. This edition includes bookseller's advertisements and purported to contain explanatory notes from a previously undiscovered manuscript of the works within; however, Swift scholars have speculated with a certain degree of uncertainty as to the authorship of everything in this volume. Some of the works and/or notes seem inconsistent with opinions expressed in Swift's other writings. Johnson may have "contrived...to enhance the appeal of his own book" by "exploiting both the notoriety and the incompletions of the Tale" (Walsh).
Contemporary mottled boards with five raised bands. Gilt title, volume numbers, and stamps on slightly rubbed spine. Red edges (slightly faded) and contemporary marbled endpapers. Modern pencil marks on FFE and RFE. Interior pages clean. Corners, edges, and hinges a little worn, but solid.