Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan (Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019960262X ISBN 13: 9780199602629

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2012

Synopsis

Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan is one of the most important philosophical texts in the English language, and one of the most influential works of political philosophy ever written. This is the first critical edition based on a full study of the manuscript and printing history. It is also the first edition to place the English text side by side with Hobbes's later Latin version of it, complete with a set of notes in which the many passages that differ in the Latin are translated into English. So, for the first time, readers of Leviathan will be able to see clearly every stage of the development of the text. Both texts are fully annotated with explanatory notes. The editor's Introduction, which takes up the whole of the first volume, gives a path-breaking account of the work's context, sources, and textual history. This definitive edition will set the study of Hobbes's masterwork on a new basis.
This hardback three-volume set is also available in paperback, in the following components: Three-volume set (comprising the Editorial Introduction, and The English and Latin Texts): 978-0-19-870908-4 Editorial Introduction (Volume 1): 978-0-19-870909-1 The English and Latin Texts (Volumes 2 and 3): 978-0-19-872396-7

About this title

Review:

The importance of Hobbes' Leviathan is largely based on the ruthlessness of its logic and the soundness of its arguments. (Contemporary Review)

Everything about these three volumes is testimony to Malcolm's extraordinary scholarly range and precision. Just as impressive is the lucidity of Malcolm's own prose ... Specialists will find fresh insights on almost every page ... Malcolm's measured and gently sceptical style is a perfect complement to Hobbe's own extravagant scepticism (David Runciman, Times Literary Supplement)

The lavish, meticulous annotation . . . is certainly this editions most significant contribution to the republic of letters. But the general reader will probably find Malcolms introduction, a tour de force that takes up the entire first volume, to be of greatest value. Malcolm . . . fluently and authoritatively sets Leviathan and its author in their time and provides a keen and detailed study of Leviathans genesis. Malcolms volume itself is an enduring work of history. (Ben Schwartz, The Atlantic)

Malcolm's edition of Leviathan aims to present the masterpiece as faithfully as possible. The result - a product of many years of labour - is an astonishing achievement of the highest scholarship. We have never before had so accurate and so richly annotated a version of the text, and it is unlikely that there will ever be another that can match this edition. (John Gray, New Statesman)

Dr Malcolm seems to have read, and judiciously assessed, everything that may be relevant to everything that may be relevant (this includes graveyard inscriptions, so it can be fairly said that he leaves no stone unturned). (The Economist)

The most helpful piece of scholarship was Noel Malcolm's translating the Latin version and appendix of Hobbes's Leviathan in his monumental three-volume edition (Christopher Howse, The Spectator (Books of the Year))

From the Publisher:

The Broadview Editions series is an effort to represent the ever-changing canon of literature in English by bringing together texts long regarded as classics with valuable, lesser-known literature. Newly type-set and produced on high-quality paper in trade paperback format, the Broadview Editions series is a delight to handle as well as to read.

Each volume includes a full introduction, chronology, bibliography, and explanatory notes along with a variety of documents from the period, giving readers a rich sense of the world from which the work emerged.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 019960262X
• ISBN 13: 9780199602629
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1828
• Editor: Malcolm Noel