Maggs Bros.

An early English translation, and probably the first to be published in England, of Brillat-Savarin’s epochal treatise on dining, the Physiologie Du Goût. One of the most influential texts in the history of gastronomy, the Physiologie defies the cataloguer’s attempt to provide a concise summary; it is enough simply to repeat Brillat-Savrin’s maxim: ‘animals feed; man eats; the man of intellect alone knows how to eat.’

Although Simpson’s rather enthusiastic abridgement of the original text causes his translation to stray, his earnest desire to improve the lot of his fellow countrymen is thoroughly charming. ‘It is a melancholy fact that London does not know “HOW TO DINE!”… It is precisely on this account that I wish to improve their dinners, they eat too much, and they drink too much, which is worse; and their dinners are montonous. They want Reform! But here is my Reform Bill’.

Head and tail of spine with some loss, and along lower joint, spine rather darkened, bookseller’s sticker to front pastedown, blind ownership stamp to front free endpaper and title-page (an “A” surrounded by a French motto, ‘Avise La Fin’ (Consider the end), a handful of pages with a juvenile pencil scribble to the margin (not affecting the text). A reasonably good copy of an interesting book.