ZIMMERMANN, [Johann Georg].
Solitude considered, in regard to its influence upon the mind and the heart. Written originally in German … Translated from the French of J. B. Mercier. London, Printed for John Fairbairn and Archibald Constable, 1797.
8vo, pp. iii-xv, [2, contents], 17-448; includes preliminary blank, or contents leaf misbound?; an excellent copy, uncut in original boards though rebacked with white paper spine, lightly soiled, traces of glue to endpapers, period-style paper label to spine.
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Solitude considered, in regard to its influence upon the mind and the heart. Written originally in German … Translated from the French of J. B. Mercier.
Rare late edition of Zimmermann’s immensely popular Solitude, first published 1756, the first appearing in English in 1779. Its combination of rational philosophy and irrational, romantic melancholy caught the mood of the later eighteenth century. Zimmermann’s own romantic eccentricity comes out through moments such as his conversations about universal truths with his barber, who is unwise enough to remark ‘it’s rather hot today’ while cutting the philosopher’s hair. OCLC notes only five copies of this edition, at Belfast Central Library, Edinburgh University, NLS, Columbia and Queen’s, Ontario.