FARGUS, FREDERICK JOHN, WRITING AS HUGH CONWAY (3 résultats)

Small octavo, pp. [1-4] [1] 2-194 [195-196: blank] [note: last leaf (O2) is a blank], nineteenth-century three-quarter green leather and marbled boards. First book edition. Published earlier as ARROWSMITH'S CHRISTMAS ANNUAL FOR 1883. Conway's first full-length fiction, a short novel which brought him worldwide fame and established the formula and format of the Victorian shilling shocker. ". this sensational story of murder, amnesia, Siberian exile, political assassination and detection made a tremendous hit. It was translated all over Europe, a dramatized version ran for a year, and the novel sold over 350,000 copies in four years." - Sutherland, Victorian Fiction, p. 222. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 58 (Christmas Annual). Hubin (1994), p. 184. Sadleir 608 ("83rd thousand"). Wolff 1423a (rebound). Topp, Victorian Yellowbacks & Paperbacks, 1849-1905 VIII, p. 217. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978) or Reginald (1979; 1992). Gift inscription dated 11 June 1884 at upper edge of title page. This copy is missing leaf A2 (an advertising leaf between the title/contents leaf and B1, the first leaf of text) and leaf O2 (the final blank), and has been bound without the original stiff white wrappers. A very good copy. The true first printing of this book (with title page dated 1884) is scarce. (#130798).

Octavo, pp. [1-3] 4-171 [172: blank] [3] 4-173 [174: blank] [175-182: ads] [note: text complete despite gap in pagination], flyleaves at front and rear, original brown cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold, pale yellow coated endpapers. First enlarged (or combined) edition. The first half of this text (with seven stories) was published earlier as CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE AND OTHER STORIES (a twenty-cent paperback in the "The People's Library" series in 1885). Whether there was an earlier separate publication for the second half is unknown. No listings in OCLC or The American Catalogue correspond to a title with these five stories. They may have been printed expressly for this cloth edition -- a rare book with just two holdings in OCLC libraries, and no mention in The American Catalogue. Conway was a best-selling author in the mid-1880s and his work was extensively pirated in America with the same material being sliced up again and again in different combinations by different publishers. Of the twelve stories here, at least two have supernatural themes: "Our Last Walk" (a ghost story) and "The Daughter of the Stars" (an occult romance). Some of the others are crime and mystery stories. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978), Day, Supplemental Checklist of Fantastic Literature, or Reginald (1979; 1992). Square of paper glued by previous owner to part of front paste-down (to cover a signature?). Bottom corners bumped, top corners rubbed, cloth at top of spine a little pulled, still a bright very good copy. (#128540).

Octavo, three volumes: pp. [i-v] vi [vii-viii] [1] 2-250; [i-v] vi [vii-viii] [1] 2-248; [i-v] vi [vii-viii] [1] 2-207 [208: printer's imprint] + 32-page publisher's catalogue dated "March, 1886" on page [1], all three half title leaves present, original salmon cloth, front panels ruled in black, rear panels ruled in blind, spine panel ruled in black and lettered in gold, black coated endpapers. First edition. Fargus's posthumously published last novel, he died prematurely in 1885 from tuberculosis, aggravated by typhoid. Glover and Greene 86 (recording the one-volume 1886 "new edition"). Sadleir 613. Wolff 1426. NCBEL III 1043. Small book labels of New York University's Fales Collection on the front paste-down of each volume. Spine lean to all three volumes, gold lettering on spine panels faded, gold lettering tarnished, hairline crack along inner rear hinge of volume III, a very good copy with clean binding and tight inner hinges. A very uncommon piece of Victorian mystery fiction. (#168460).