[Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet de]:

CANDIDE, OU L'OPTIMISME. TRADUIT DE L'ALLEMAND DE MR. DOCTEUR RALPH

      Np [but London: possibly printed by J. Nourse], 1759.. [2],[3]-299,[1]pp. 12mo. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra, gilt crimson label. Free endsheets neatly excised, joints cracking slightly (but sound), armorial bookplate of William Foster Stearns, and 1803 ownership signature of one Chas. Horlick in upper margin of title, some foxing early and late, short tear in fore- edge of F3, with no loss, else a very good copy. One of two genuine 1759 London printings of the original French text of CANDIDE, set from an advance copy of the Geneva first edition, and preserving an early form of the text, including passages eventually canceled in the Geneva printing. Of the eighteen known 1759 editions, the unaltered text is preserved in only one other London edition, and in an edition printed in Italy. Its London origin is betrayed by the press figure on p.218, and the typically English binding. ESTC T140380. XIMENES 87:253. BARBER 299La. PMM 204.