Travels and Adventures of Edward Brown, Esq

New York: Garland Publishing. Very Good with no dust jacket. 1973. Reprint. Hardcover. 0824005821 . Library stamps/marks/labels/pocket/slip, otherwise light wear. Solid hardcover.; Facsimile reprint of the 1739 edition, London: J Applebee for A Bettesworth et al. "To separate fiction from fact in a work so resolutely factual in its presentation... is no easy task ... Nevertheless, scholars do accept it as fiction, by John Campbell, Lit.D., a minor but prolific man of letters and friend of Johnson and Boswell. Campbell certainly had the voluminous knowledge to report with authority ... although it is not clear how many voyages he personally took, his other literaary productions consisteed largely of digests of other men's writings on history, politics, and economics. Factual material concerning these subjects does indeed take up most of the book. But, stripped of this, the work bears several interesting resemblances to contemporary fiction of the period. Between the Christian castaway and the conniving picaro appears another hero in travel literature. "The middle-class hero in the imaginary voyage," as Philip Gove describes him, "questing for material gain through trade or plunder ..." - new introduction by Josephine Grieder. ; Foundations Of The Novel; Ex-Library; 8, xvi, 434, (14) pages .