Travels Into Several Remote Nations Of The World (Gulliver's Travels), by Jonathan Swift,

One of the finest works of fiction in English literature, it's a once a fantastic, imagined voyage and a biting, on-target satire of English politics, customs, and society. The stupidity of war is illustrated by Lilliput going to war with Blefuscu in a dispute over which end of an egg should be broken. In this first-person narrative by Lemuel Gulliver, surgeon and sea captain, the nautical content, mapping, and realistic descriptions give the book accuracy, but don't get in the way of this fictional masterpiece.

This 2-volume, large 8vo set from The Golden Cockerel Press is set 142 of the limited edition of 450 sets. Written by Swift in 1726, this 1925 edition reproduces the text from the Henry G. Bohn edition of 1864. Includes forty, strongly-styled, wood engravings by David Jones, the majority are hand-colored, and all are present. An additional engraving, presumably by Jones, is the colophon's chanticleer device of the Golden Cockerel Press. He created some, not all, of the book's decorative capitals. A polymath, Jones was a painter, modernist poet, and wood engraver. This book was his first work for Golden Cockerel Press.

Volume I: Begins with The Publisher's Note to the Reader, by Gulliver's fictional cousin Richard Sympson, then A Letter From Captain Gulliver to his Cousin Sympson. The following text is in a First Part and Second Part, each beginning with a hand-colored, engraved Plate. Has, in total, 2 hand-colored plates, 14 hand-colored cuts, and 6 monochrome cuts.

Volume II: Text is in a First Part and Second Part, each beginning with a hand-colored, engraved Plate. Has, in total, 2 hand-colored plates, 7 hand-colored cuts, and 9 monochrome cuts. Ends with a colophon. Both Volumes: Within Parts, each chapter begins with a decorative, monochrome capital.

On laid, watermarked Antique De Luxe paper. All leaves are unopened at the head, fore and tail edges untrimmed. Bound in half, cream buckram with a wide, vertical band of matte black paper. From the colophon in Volume II: “This edition of Gulliver’s Travels was printed by Robert Gibbings at Waltham Saint Lawrence in Berkshire, and completed on the XVII. Day of November, MCMXXV. The text is taken from the Bohn edition, the illustrations are designed and engraved on wood by David Jones. Compositors: F. Young and A. H. Gibbs. Pressman: A. C. Cooper. CCCCLXXX. copies have been printed, of which nos. I. to XXX. are on hand-made paper. This is number [142, hand numbered]”.

Common to this edition, both volumes have a sun-darkened spine, and the cover cloth has overall soiling. Volume 1: The paper band has two scrapes and an area of abrasion with surface loss to the front, an area of abrasion loss to the back, minor chipping to edges, and the cloth has light reddish staining to the back. Volume II: The paper band has an area of abrasion with surface loss to the front, a scrape and an area of abrasion loss to the back, and minor chipping to edges.

Not pristine, as typical, it is internally clean and sound, in about Very Good condition, and examples are scarce in the trade.