Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
MILTON, JOHN. Paradise Lost. A New Edition, By Richard Bentley, D. D.. London, Jacob Tonson, 1732.
Price: US$250.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 4to, contemporary calf, covers detached, spine lacking, half title and both portraits lacking, few penciled notes, lightly and uniformly embrowned, working copy.
Seller: G. W. Stuart, Jr., ABAA(emeritus), Yuma, AZ, U.S.A.
MILTON, (John). Paradise Lost. A New Edition, By Richard Bentley, D.D.. London, Jacob Tonson, 1732.
Price: US$540.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Quarto, later half calf, boards, very worn, covers detached, lacking blank fly-leaves and lacking both portraits. Half-title inscribed: "To Ben Naugle-who never fails to 'grasp the eel of science by the tail' 15 Jan'49 Jim Osborn." Tiny embossed bookplate; internally a large and clean working copy. Quite likely, this is the most famous (or infamous) of all the various eighteenth century editions. Bentley's improvements on Milton's epic masterpiece rather predictably caused a wonderful uproa. Bartholomew Bentley, 257; Coleridge 103 Kohler 16. The first and only Bentley edition.
Seller: G. W. Stuart, Jr., ABAA(emeritus), Yuma, AZ, U.S.A.
Price: US$700.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Milton's Paradise Lost. A New Edition, By Richard Bentley, D.D., London: Printed for Jacob Tonson; and for John Paulson; and for J. Darby, A Bettesworth, and F. Clay, in Trust for Richard, James, and Bethel Wellington, 1732. Original boards with modern leather spine - very finely restored, First Bentley Edition, 399 pp + index, 10.5 x 8.5", 4to. In good condition. Original boards are scuffed at edges & worn/bumped at corners. Modern leather spine clean, gilt lettering and ruling bright. Marbled front paste-down exhibits some toning around edges. Bookseller's ticket found on front paste-down: Galloway & Porter (Charles T. Porter), New & Second-Hand Booksellers, Sidney Street, Cambridge. Inscription & marginalia found on front fly-leaf, dated 1825. Light toning and some instance of foxing throughout text-block. Modern binding tight and intact. Please see photos and ask questions, if any, before purchasing. Richard Bentley (1794-1871) was a 19th-century English publisher born into a publishing family. Richard established a successful and well-known periodical Bentley's Miscellany, however, the periodical went into decline after its editor, Charles Dickens, left. The most successful time in Bentley's publishing career was his Standard Novels series, which published one-volume versions of novels of which had previously only been available in three-volume form. John Milton (1608-1674) is regarded as one of he greatest English poets of all time. His 1667 epic Paradise Lost, written in blank verse and including over 10 chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval. The work addresses the fall of man, including the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and God's expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden. Milton is among history's most influential and impassioned defenses of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. He was the first modern writer to employ unrhymed verse outside of the theatre or translations. Included in this work is a beautifully engraved portrait of Milton modeled after a portrait taken in 1629, when Milton was just twenty-one years old. Incredible restoration work. Complete work. Original boards. First Bentley Edition. Gift quality.
Seller: ROBIN RARE BOOKS at the Midtown Scholar, Harrisburg, PA, U.S.A.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Jacob Tonson, 1732.
Price: US$800.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Contemporary calf, 6 raised bands, gilt ruling and edge decoration, gilt decoration in compartments on the spine. Cover shows moderate wear and rubbing, erosion and edgewear. Contemporary marbled endappers. A few minor smudges to the pages. With frontis portrait engraving.
Seller: Books From California, Simi Valley, CA, U.S.A.
John Milton. Paradise Lost. Jacob Tonson, London, 1732.
Price: US$950.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Includes engraved portrait of Milton. First Bentley Edition. Gilt lines around perimeter of front and back cover, with leather corners. Raised bands along spine wit a gilt design within each compartment. Brown leather label. Dark strip along where the cover meets the spine. Imprinted design on front and back cover. Design on the edge of the covers. Pages are dyed red (spotted). Interior of front and back cover is slightly stained.
Seller: Pleasant Street Books, woodstock, VT, U.S.A.
Price: US$1062.50 + shipping
Description: First Bentley edition, 4to, pp. [20], 399, [1], [16] index; 2 engraved portraits by Vertue, full contemporary calf, gilt-decorated spine in 6 compartments, red morocco label in 1; upper joint a little cracked, several minor imperfections, but on the whole a nice copy with the half-title. Contained in a new cloth clamshell box. Lowndes II, 1559; Ebert 14075.
Seller: Rulon-Miller Books (ABAA / ILAB), St. Paul, MN, U.S.A.
Price: US$1400.00 + shipping
Description: Quarto, [20], 399, [17], [2], vi, iv, [4], 280 pages. In Very Good condition. Bound in three-quarter calf with blue cloth boards and gilt lettering to paneled spine. Boards show some rubbing and wear to binding, wear to front hinge, and cracking to upper hinges. Text block shows very mild scattered foxing, 1905/1921 ink ownership and notes to front endpapers, and moderate foxing to title page of Paradise Regained. Marbled endpapers. Two books bound together; Paradise Lost with two engraved portraits after Vertue, a half-title, and an index.; Paradise Regained with engraved title page, folding map; parts of the volume have been trimmed close at the top edge, with no loss to text, map has been very closely trimmed, with very small loss to border line; map with two pieces of backing. Either of the Dunster editions are rare, with the 1800 being the scarcer of the two. HS Consignment. Shelved in Case 0. "A reissue of the 1795 edition, printed for T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, with a different titlepage, an additional dedication leaf dated September 20, 1799, printed by John Nichols, and two leaves containing a letter signed C. D., i.e. Charles Dunster, dated April 12, 1800, printed by John Nichols." [ESTC]. "This is the first separate edition of PR with the range of editorial material to qualify as a variorum. A revised second edition was published in 1800. Dunster wrote the arguments to each book himself, as Milton had not provided any" [Coleridge]. ESTC: T133945, T134618; Wickenheiser 631, 1589. 1340157. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.