The Works of Laurence Sterne, in Four Volumes.

The title page of the first volume reads: " The Works of Laurence Sterne, in Four Volumes. Containing The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent. A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy; Sermons, -Letters, &c. With A Life of the Author, Written by Himself."

This lovely set was published in London in 1815 and "Printed for: A. Strahan, G. Wilkie; Lackington, Allen, and Co...." Et al. The signed hand-made bindings are by Root & Son. The bindings include: luxuriously tactile crimson calf leather with hubbed, gilt, dated, and tooled spines, and with additional tooling on the interior edges; marbled endpapers; red silk ribbon place markers; and sixteen hand-colored wood engravings by John Thurston (1774-1822). The front endpapers contain the bookplate of a previous owner, Charles D. Armstrong, of the Armstrong Flooring Company, who assembled a fine library in 1929 in England. One spine date label is missing.

Although the novel "Tristram Shandy" first appeared in stages between 1759 and 1767, this present four volume set of his works were necessary to collect and publish because of Sterne's great popularity and influence on English literature. As stated in the Advertisement preface of the first volume: "Time...hath done ample justice to the superior genius of Mr. Sterne. It hath fixed his reputation as one of the first writers in the English language, on the firmest basis, and advanced him to the rank of a classic. As such it becomes a debt of gratitude to collect his scattered performances into a complete edition, with those embellishments usually bestowed on our most distinguished authors." Thus this beautifully embellished collectors' set presenting the humor and observations of Laurence Sterne.