Founded in 1820 by Henry Southern, "The Retrospective Review" aimed to recall the public from an exclusive attention to new books, by making the merit of old ones the subject of critical discussion. This edition reproduces in facsimile all 18 volumes of the periodical published between 1820-1854.

This edition reproduces in facsimile all 18 volumes of the periodical: volumes 1-14, 1820-6; volumes 1 and 2 of the renamed Retrospective Review and Historical and Antiquarian Magazine, 1827-8; and volumes 1 and 2, renamed the Retrospective Review, consisting of Criticisms upon, Analysis of and Extracts from Curious, Valuable and Scarce Old Books, 1853-4. All original indexes are retained which consist of individual indexes to each volume, and a consolidated index of books reviewed in volumes 1-14.

Works reviewed include: Francis Bacon: Novum Organum and Letters
William Beckford: Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters and Thoughts on Hunting
Aphra Behn: Dramatic Writings
Thomas Carew: Poems
Margaret Cavendish: Selected Works
Geoffrey Chaucer: Works and Troilus and Criseyde, trans. into Latin by Kinaston
Colley Cibber: An Apology for the Life of Mr Colley Cibber, Comedian
William Cooper: translation of Homer
William Cowley: Works
Richard Crashaw: Poems
Daniel Defoe: Memoirs of a Cavalier and A Journal of the Plague Year
John Donne: Poems
John Dryden: Dramatic Works and Prose Works, English Political Songs and Satires
Richard Hakluyt: Historie of the West Indies
George Herbert: Poems
Thomas Hobbes: translation of Homer
Ben Jonson: Works
Richard Lovelace: Lucasta
John Mandeville: travel writing
Christopher Marlowe: Plays
Andrew Marvell, Works
Thomas Middleton: Plays
John Milton: History of Britain, Areopagitica and Poetical Works
Michel Montaigne: Essays
Thomas More, The Apology of Syr Thomas More
Thomas Nashe, Selected Works
Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin
Sir Walter Raleigh: Remains
Thomas Rymer: On Tragedy
Walter Scott: Poetry 'contained in the Novels, Tales and Romances of the Author of Waverly' and Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
Thomas Shadwell: Dramatic Works
William Shakespeare: Poetical Works
Philip Sidney: Arcadia and Defence of Poesy
Edmund Spenser: Minor Poems
John Suckling: Poems, Letters and Plays
Horace Walpole: Anecdotes of Painting in England
Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton: The Compleat Angler
Mary Wollstonecraft: Rights of Woman