Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution.

PAINE, Thomas.

$2,500.00

Item Number: 146441

London: Printed for the Booksellers, 1792.

Scarce early collected edition of Paine’s classic work. Duodecimo, two parts bound in one volume, contemporary three-quarter calf over marbled boards. In very good condition with rubbing to the extremities, spine, front and rear panels. First printed in London by Joseph Johnson in March, 1791, publication was quickly taken over by J.S. Jordan, who published his own revised edition later that same year. Part two was published a year later, in February, 1792. A rare and desirable combined edition, containing both parts of Paine’s work.

Written “with a force and clarity unequalled even by Burke, Paine laid down those principles of fundamental human rights which must stand, no matter what excesses are committed to obtain them… The government tried to suppress it, but it circulated the more briskly… [Rights of Man is] the textbook of radical thought and the clearest of all expositions of the basic principles of democracy” (PMM 241).