The English Instructor; or Useful and Entertaining Passages in Prose, Selected from the most eminent English writers, and designed for the use and improvement of those who learn that Language. Paris, Vergani, 1801.
Second Edition. 12mo (165 x 100mm), pp. iv, 259, in contemporary calf-backed dark painted boards, front joint splitting slightly at the top, faded yellow edges.
An attractive copy of the second edition of this compilation of English literature, first published in 1799 for the French market. Inspired by the success of The Beauties of the Spectator, Angelo Vergani assembled the present anthology of ‘Fables, Moral Tales, Histories, Allegories and Reflexions selected from the most eminent English authors with a view to afford farther assistance to those who are desirous of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the elegance and beauty of the English Language’. The extracts are taken from Johnson, Chesterfield, Middleton, Shakespeare, Sterne, Goldsmith and many others, as originally published in the Spectator, Tatler and Guardian. Although the work is intended chiefly for those learning the English language, Vergani suggests that the passages selected are such as will bring pleasure to ‘all sorts of readers’.
OCLC lists Bodleian, Penn and Butler.