Complete Essays: Volume 1
Volume 1
Published on 28. May 2026
Book
Hardback
448 pages
978-0-241-73087-4 (ISBN)
Description
A superb new edition of the essays of one of the greatest prose writers in English
David Hume reshaped, redirected, and re-energised the English essay. His sceptical, rational, self-questioning persona created what amounted to a new intellectual arena, in which it was possible to think afresh about the world and the self. When he famously wrote that 'the life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster', something had changed.
David Womersley has spent a lifetime studying the literature of the eighteenth century. This definitive new two-volume edition of the essays follows Hume's division of his essays into two parts, and allows the modern reader to enjoy this extraordinary writer in all his moods, from benign optimism to gloomy foreboding. The editorial apparatus supplies indispensable intellectual and bibliographical context for these rewarding, humane, and yet also subtly provocative writings.
Volume 2 is published simultaneously.
David Hume reshaped, redirected, and re-energised the English essay. His sceptical, rational, self-questioning persona created what amounted to a new intellectual arena, in which it was possible to think afresh about the world and the self. When he famously wrote that 'the life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster', something had changed.
David Womersley has spent a lifetime studying the literature of the eighteenth century. This definitive new two-volume edition of the essays follows Hume's division of his essays into two parts, and allows the modern reader to enjoy this extraordinary writer in all his moods, from benign optimism to gloomy foreboding. The editorial apparatus supplies indispensable intellectual and bibliographical context for these rewarding, humane, and yet also subtly provocative writings.
Volume 2 is published simultaneously.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Laminated cover
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
778 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-73087-4 (9780241730874)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
David Hume | David Womersley
Complete Essays: Volume 1
E-Book
05/2026
Penguin Books Ltd
€14.99
Available for download
Persons
David Hume (Author)
David Hume (1711-76) was born in Edinburgh and devoted himself to philosophy and literature from an early age. In 1739-40, he published his now highly regarded work, A Treatise of Human Nature. He worked as a tutor, judge advocate, librarian, diplomat and senior civil servant, as well as writing further works such as Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and a six-volume History of England.
David Womersley (External Editor)
David Womersley is the Thomas Warton Professor of Literature at the University of Oxford. Among his interests are Jonathan Swift (he was the general editor of the CUP edition of Swift), Daniel Defoe and Edward Gibbon, whose Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire he edited for Penguin Classics.
David Hume (1711-76) was born in Edinburgh and devoted himself to philosophy and literature from an early age. In 1739-40, he published his now highly regarded work, A Treatise of Human Nature. He worked as a tutor, judge advocate, librarian, diplomat and senior civil servant, as well as writing further works such as Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and a six-volume History of England.
David Womersley (External Editor)
David Womersley is the Thomas Warton Professor of Literature at the University of Oxford. Among his interests are Jonathan Swift (he was the general editor of the CUP edition of Swift), Daniel Defoe and Edward Gibbon, whose Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire he edited for Penguin Classics.