HISTORY OF ENGLAND. From the Accession of James the Second

London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1849-1856. 5 volumes. First Edition of each volume. 8vo, very handsomely bound in antique half polished natural calf, the spines with raised bands gilt ruled, three compartments with contrasting red and green morocco labels gilt, marbled paper covered boards, marbled endleaves and all edges marbled to match. xii, 669; xi, 680; xi, 764; xii, 836; viii, 398 pp. A handsome set, very well preserved with minimal evidence of age or use, the hinges strong, the text-blocks all sound and clean. A very appealing set of this important work. A VERY HANDSOME AND ATTRACTIVELY BOUND SET OF THIS IMPORTANT WORK. Macaulay was one of the most acknowledged intellectual pundits of his age. He wrote essays for the Edinburgh Review for over twenty years, was a Member of Parliament, a member of the Supreme Council on India, Secretary at War and Paymaster General. It was for two works, CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS and this, his HISTORY OF ENGLAND, that he won his greatest fame. 'Macaulay's approach to writing the History was innovative for his period. He consciously fused the picturesque, dramatic style of classical historians such as Thucydides and Tacitus with the learned and factual approach of his 18th-century precursors such as Hume, following the plan laid out in his own 1828 "Essay on History"'. Edinburgh Review
"The History is the first historical work deliberately designed to outsell the best selling novel of the day. Macaulay's book immediately fulfilled its author's aspiration. His colourful style and stirring power of description secured for the History a success such as no historical work in the English language has had since Gibbon. Each volume sold about 150,000 copies within a month of publication, and the numerous reprints and translations, into almost every literary language have perpetuated Macaulay's ideas almost to this day." PMM 328
'The History is famous for its prose and for its confident emphasis on a progressive model of British history. According to this view, England threw off superstition, autocracy and confusion to create a balanced constitution and a forward-looking culture combined with freedom of belief and expression. This model of human progress has been called the Whig interpretation of history.'
'W. A. Speck wrote in 1980, that a reason Macaulay's History of England "still commands respect is that it was based upon a prodigious amount of research". He concluded that what is in fact striking is the extent to which his History of England at has survived subsequent research. It is hard to pinpoint a passage where he is categorically in error ... his account of events has stood up remarkably well ... His interpretation of the Glorious Revolution also remains the essential starting point for any discussion of that episode.' Speck, W. A., "Thomas Babington Macaulay". In Cannon, John (ed.). The Historian at Work.