Complete in two volumes. 300pp;228pp. Both volumes half bound in brown leather over marbled boards. 16mos. Boards are heavily worn and rubbed with some leather loss and paper scars, scuffed on edges and rounded on corners, spine leather cracked and dry, with volume two missing the black spine label present on volume one. Bumoed and indented all round edges. Front hinge of volume one fully cracked, loosening the front panel, and lacks both free endpapers (opening to the half-title), and has one signature loosening. Volume two also has the front hinge cracked but remains firmly bound; and has a faint reverse imprint of a bookplate(?) or label (?) on the rear paste down. Both volumes have darkened text block edges and, internally, some staining on endpapers and some faint and occasional spotting and mild marks internally. Suitabe set for restoration or rebinding.
Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831) was an Edinburgh lawyer and advocate but isnow better remembered for his literary works and his role as a founder member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His first novel, Man of Feeling, was rejected by several publishers but it was a popular and commercial success when Mackenzie had it published himself in 1771. Man of the World was first published two years later, in 1773: this copy is a fifth edition from 1795. The central character in Man of the World is as thoroughly bad as the Man of Feeling was consistently innocently benevolent and guided by moral sense.
