Night thoughts. With a life of the author and notes critical and explanatory

London: printed by C. Whittingham for T. Heptinstall, 1798. 8vo, pp. 22, [2], 364; inserted engraved frontispiece of the author by Collyer; engraved vignette title and 8 engraved plates after Thomas Stothard (all spotted in the margins); slightly later quarter red straight-grain morocco over marbled boards, smooth spine paneled and lettered in gilt with gilt decorations, marbled edges; extremities rubbed, margins of plates a bit spotted, but a very good copy. The material for the Life of Young is taken from Johnson's Lives of the Poets, "written by Herbert Croft, with the critique of Dr. Johnson, and compared with the Biographia Britannica, and other respectable authorities." The first part of this now famous poem was published in 1742 and achieved immediate popularity, both at home and especially in Germany and France where Young was considered by some to be a more powerful poet than Milton. The poem was greatly admired by Diderot, Madame De Stael and Robespierre, the last of whom is said to have kept the book under his pillow during the Revolution.