A Dissertation on Reading the Classics, and Forming a Just Style. Written in the year 1709, and addressed to the Right Honourable John Lord Roos, the present Marquis of Granby.
London: Printed for Jonah Bowyer, 1713. First edition. Corners rubbed. A fine, unrestored copy. Contemporary panelled calf. Twelvemo. [2], xx, [14], 274, [2, ads] pp. Item #7627
Much of this popular little book is devoted to the author’s theories of education in general, and the art of teaching in particular, as well as rhetoric and literary style. There are also remarks on such modern writers as Swift (his favorite), Addison, Dryden, Prior, Milton, Otway, Cowley, and Denham; the preface, which is new to this edition, contains a complimentary reference to Pope as “the ingenious author of the Essay on Criticism.” Of particular interest are Felton's remarks on the distinctions between translation, paraphrase, and imitation, distinctions of great concern to poets of the Restoration and early 18th-century.
Alston VI, 125. See Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century Philosophers.
Price: $450.00