Oeuvres diverses du Docteur Young

New edition, illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of the author (unsigned), as well as with a figure at the head of each volume.
Contemporary full light calf bindings. Smooth spines decorated with gilt fleurons and fillets, as well as black morocco title and volume labels. Gilt vegetal roll border framing the boards. Geometric roll on the edges. Fine gilt dentelle framing the pastedowns. All edges marbled. Some joints rubbed or very lightly cracked, otherwise a handsome copy.
The edition is organized as follows:
Vol. 1. Young's Nights.
Vol. 2. Young's Nights (Continued). The Last Judgment. The Triumph of Religion. Paraphrase of the Book of Job. Epistle to Voltaire. Review of Life. Thoughts on Various Subjects. Eusebius, or the Virtuous Rich Man. Resignation.
Vol. 3. Estimation of Life. Treatise on Passions. Moral Letters on Pleasure. Conjectures on Original Composition.
Vol. 4. Revenge, A Tragedy. Busiris, King of Egypt, A Tragedy. Epistle to Lord Lansdowne on the Peace of 1712.
It is well known that Young's Nights enjoyed considerable success and many editions. Le Tourneur's famous translation accentuated the lugubrious side and the emphasis of the original, and contributed in France to making the work more famous than in England, making Young the leader of a new dark and pre-Romantic poetic school whose roots originated with Milton. Even his tragedies were considered the finest plays of the time, notably Revenge, an imitation of Othello, and he is considered to have been one of the principal figures of eighteenth-century English poetry at the origin of Romanticism.