Jonathan Swift; Pierre-Francois Guyot Desfontaines [Trans.] — 2vols in 1 Voyages de Gulliver

Paris, Gabriel Martin, 1727. Leather. The scarce corrected second edition of Desfontaines' influential French translation of Swift's "Gulliver's Travels," published within a year of Swift's English original. Two volumes bound in one, in a contemporary full calf binding.  The second edition, revised and corrected, of Pierre-Francois Guyot Desfontaines' celebrated French translation and adaptation of Gulliver's Travels, published in the same year as his first edition and less than a year after the English original appeared in 1726.  Illustrated with four unsigned engraved plates, one illustrating each of Gulliver's four voyages. Collated, complete.  The first volume contains the voyages to Lilliput and Brobdingnag, while the second comprises the voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan, followed by the voyage to the country of the Houyhnhnms.  Desfontaines' translation was not strictly literal: he abridged and adapted Swift's text for a French readership, altering or suppressing passages he considered objectionable.  Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist and clergyman. Gulliver's Travels, first published in English in 1726, is his best-known work.  An appealing early French edition of Swift's masterpiece.  In a contemporary full calf binding. Externally, worn. Calf rubbed and bumped to the extremities, with areas of surface loss to the boards, particularly along the lower edges, where the underlying board is exposed. Spine heavily rubbed, with loss and chipping to the head and tail and rubbing to the gilt decoration and title label. Worming to the spine ends and joint extremities. Joints cracked at the extremities; hinges strained with sewing exposed, but boards holding. Bookplate to front paste-down, with small ink inscriptions and shelf marks. Worming extends into the gutter margins of the front endpapers and title page of vol. I, with slight worming to the rear endpapers. Internally, generally firmly bound. Hinge strained between the plate and A1 of vol. II, with the binding partially exposed, but holding. Pages generally bright and clean if characteristically age-toned, with the odd light spot and occasional minor handling mark. Fair . Ill.: None Stated. Fair .