8vo. viii, [1], 464pp. With an engraved portrait frontispiece. Contemporary panelled calf, tooled in gilt and blind, contrasting red morocco lettering-piece, all edges red. Lightly rubbed and marked, spine sunned. Marbled endpapers, contemporary inked gift inscription to recto of front blank fly-leaf, scattered spotting.

The first edition of a biography of Daniel Defoe by William Chadwick (1804-1888), rector of Arksey Village and Justice of the Peace. Despite Chadwick's dedication to the great novelist, the work was lambasted in The Gentleman's Magazine (July 1859) as 'pert, vapid, heavy and unreadable'.