The Correspondence: Volume I: 1622-1659 (Cewth) [Paperback]

Thomas Hobbes (Author), Noel Malcolm (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198237472 | ISBN-13: 978-0198237471 | Publication Date: January 15, 1998

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is one of the most important figures in the history of European thought. Although interest in his life and work has grown enormously in recent years, this is the first complete edition of his correspondence. The texts of the letters are richly supplemented with explanatory notes and full biographical and bibliographical information. This landmark publication sheds new light in abundance on the intellectual life of a major thinker.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Superb....The state of our knowledge has suddenly been transformed....We must be grateful not merely for the letters that remain but for the truly spectacular job that Dr. Malcolm has done in making them available. The concept of definitive scholarship has been made to seem almost paradoxical in these post-modern days. But research of the quality displayed in these volumes reminds us that the ideal is by no means wholly out of reach."--Quentin Skinner, New York Review of Books

"In these two thick volumes, we witness yet another aspect of Malcolm's prodigious gifts....We are presented with a comprehensive and meticulous example of scholarship."--The Times

"One can feel nothing but gratitude for Malcolm's labours and admiration at their outcome. Hobbe's philosophy will, for the first time, have a real editor, and also one day, we can now hope, a real author."--Times Literary Supplement

"These two volumes constitute the first collection of Hobbe's known correspondence, and their publication is therefore an important literary and philosophical event....They open a window onto many aspects of the 17th century world, anyone interested in history, literature, politics, philosophy, and the history of science will find them utterly absorbing....Interest in Hobbes has been steadily reviving in recent years, and Malcolm's magnificent edition of his correspondence will help to spur that process."--Financial Times

"The fluency and elegance of this translation is a fair sampling of Noel Malcolm's skill. He has rounded off his Herculean labours with a biographical register that will be of value to all students of 17th-century culture and indispensable to anyone interested in Hobbes."--The Independent

"Noel Malcolm rounds off these two beautifully produced volumes with succinct biographies of Hobbes's correspondents. Written with the elegance, modesty, and impeccable scholarship that characterise the edition as a whole."--Sunday Telegraph

"...it can never be surpassed in the quality of the editing. The range and depth of Dr. Noel Malcolm's scholarship are beyond praise and almost beyond belief, being shown in meticulous accuracy, close historical knowledge, acute reasoning, comprehensive yet economical notes, a detailed biographical register of Hobbe's correspondents, and assured, felicitous translations of the extensive use of Latin, Greek, French and Italian, all done by the editor himself....The book is essential reading for all serious students of Hobbe's life and thought."--Political Studies

About the Author

Thomas Hobbes (1588- 1679) was an English philosopher, whose famous 1651 book Leviathan set the agenda for nearly all subsequent Western political philosophy. Noel Malcolm is at Visiting Fellow, St Antony's College, Oxford.

Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198237472
• ISBN-13: 978-0198237471
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,265,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)