New Library Edition of
STEELE AND ADDISON’S “SPECTATOR.”
In Eight Volumes, Extra Crown 8vo, with Original Engraved Portraits and Vignettes, Cloth, price 7s. Net per Volume. Sold only in Sets, £2, 16s. Net.
The Spectator.
Edited with Introduction and Notes
By GEORGE A. AITKEN,
Author of “The Life of Richard Steele,” &c.
From the Editor’s Preface.
“The present edition of the ‘Spectator’ has been printed from a copy of the original collected and revised edition published in 1712-15, with the exception that modern rules of spelling have been followed. The principal variations between the text as corrected by the authors and the original version in the folio numbers have at the same time been indicated in the notes; it has not been thought necessary to point out slight differences of no importance. In the notes I have aimed at the greatest conciseness compatible with the satisfactory explanation of the less obvious allusions to literary or social matters. I have acknowledged my principal obligations to more recent editors, but in some cases notes have been handed down from one editor to another, and cannot be traced to their original author. Many of the older notes, moreover, were obsolete, or needed correction in the light of subsequent knowledge. I have endeavoured to preserve what is of value, without burdening the pages with the contradictions and inaccuracies which are inevitable in a variorum edition.”
Some Press Notices.