Dialogues of the Dead

London: J. Murray (successor to Mr. Sandby), 1768. Hardcover. Very Good. The Fifth Edition, Corrected." [2], xv, [1], 406 p.; 21 cm. Contemporary full calf with six spine compartments between raised bands. Leather label in second compartment with gilt-tooled title "Lyttelton's Dialogues." Gilt-rolled board edges. All page edges speckled red. Woodcut headpieces and tailpieces. Very small stamp at foot of title page verso reading "Printed in Great Britain." The anonymous author of the majority of these dialogues, inspired by Lucian's dialogues, is George Lyttelton, Baron Lyttelton (1709-1773); the last three dialogues are by Elizabeth Montagu (1720-1800). Among the speakers are "a North-American Savage"; Ulysses; William Penn; Louise de Coligni, Princess of Orange; Alexander the Great; Cardinal Wolsey; Lucian; Hercules; and a "modern Bookseller" who complains to Plutarch about being nearly ruined by being unable to sell many copies of Plutarch's Lives, and saved by selling fiction -- "secret History, in which there is no Secret and no History." In Very Good Condition: minor loss at spine ends; joints are just starting but still solid; scraped along both joints near tail; a few pages are somewhat browned; otherwise, clean and tight.