Schopenhauer, Arthur

Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1819

8vo (8 x 4 5/8 in.; 203 x 118 mm). First section-title, half-title, general title, section titles for the subsequent three books, folding table; some light dampstains in top and bottom margins, some light browning and marginal spotting. Contemporary black German marbled boards, in a brown cloth drop-box; extremities torn, covers scraped.

Mrs. Philip D. Sang (sale, Sotheby's New York, 14 February 1986, lot 315). Acquisition: Ralph Geoffrey Newman

Hübscher, Schopenhauer-Bibliographie 10; PMM 279

First edition of his most famous work, a pessimistic view of scientific endeavor explicitly described (on the title page) as a "criticism of Kantian philosophy." In it he asserts that "the will and the passions ... are the real determinants of all intellectual life," a stance appreciated by both Wagner and Nietzsche. A second volume appeared for the first time as part of the second edition in 1844.