The Citizen of the World: or, letters from a Chinese philosopher, residing in London, to his friends in the East

London: Taylor and Hessey / George Cowey, 1819.

Two volumes, complete. Small 8vo. pp xvi, [1], 2-278; viii, [1], 2-230. Bound in contemporary leather with wide patterned gilt border to front and back, heavily gilt spines. Head of spine on vol I chipped and edges rubbed, joint becoming tender. An decent copy in nice period binding. A collection of 119 satirical letters in which Goldsmith uses his fictitious author, Lien Chi Altangi, to deliver witty and frequently damning criticism of contemporary British culture. In the process, he incidentally also reveals a lot about contemporary British conceptions of Chinese culture and the state of British trade relations with China. The work is a classic example of the "oriental letters" literary genre, where a foreign narrator provides an outsider's view on society.