THE WORKS OF ROBERT BURNS; With an Account of his Life, and a Criticism on his Writings. To which are prefixed, some observations on the character and condition of the Scottish Peasantry.

Second edition. Four volumes. 8vo. Publisher's original marbled paper-covered boards backed in cream paper with printed paper title labels to the spines. Page edges untrimmed. Engraved portrait frontispiece to the first volume and each volume with a woodcut vignette to the title page. A very good set indeed, the bindings square and firm with a little cracking to the upper joint of volumes one and three, a neatly repaired chip to the head of the spine of volume four and a little wear and rubbing to the extremities. The contents with occasional light spotting and a minor damp mark to the upper margins of volume four are otherwise in very good order and clean throughout. An attractive, unsophisticated set.

A most uncommon survival in the original boards of the second edition of the first collected works of Robert Burns, following the 1800 Liverpool edition. The textual changes between the editions were minor, and the frontispiece is in fact the same plate reused (with its imprint dated 1800). "The content is in the same order, but the differences reflect this new edition, most notably in the new advertisement, the lack of a list of subscribers, and the added appendix" (Lamont). (Lamont 623; Egerer 89).