Reflections on the Revolution in France

First published in 1790, this long public letter answers praise of the French Revolution by arguing that France is destroying inherited law, church, and property in the name of abstract rights. Burke contrasts the English settlement after 1688 with the National Assembly's experiments, defends prejudice and prescription as social wisdom, and predicts that violence and a military strongman will follow the collapse of authority. He writes to a young French correspondent and publishes the letter as a warning to England. The work is a conservative political argument written as correspondence, not a narrative history of 1789.

Bound in colour pictures. Dark red endpapers. Bound in black cloth blocked and printed on front in gold and red with an image. Black slipcase.