Henry Fielding. Histoire de Tom Jones, ou l'enfant trouvé

Traduction de l'anglois de M. Fielding. Par M. D.L.P. (= Pierre-Antoine de La Place), Enrichie d'estampes dessinées par M. Gravelot. Amst., aux dépens de la Compagnie, 1750, 4 parts in 2 vols., (20),222; (8),229; ((8),187; (8),224 pp., with engr. frontispiece and 15 plates by J. Punt after H. Gravelot, contemp. unif. half calf, gilt spines w. mor letterpiece, sm. 8vo.

Occ. foxed/ sl. browned; offsetting from turn-ins. Board edges and outer corners showing. A good, attractive copy of an early French translation, with intriguing old owner's stamp with crowned initials "HS" (not in Lugt) on verso of halftiles of vol. 1 and 3.The first English edition was published in 1749. Henry Fielding (1707-1754) was an English playwright and novelist, this comic, picaresque novel is considered to be his greatest work. It is one of the earliest English works classified as a novel. W. Somerset Maugham mentions this work first in his book Great Novelists and Their Novels (1948), among the ten best novels of the world.