MERRICK, LEONARD BORN LEONARD MILLER (4 résultats)

Octavo, original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold and blind, bottom edge untrimmed, plain endpapers title page printed in blue and black. First edition. Fourteen short stories, Merrick's seventh collection of short stories, first published in 1914. A highly regarded author of literary fiction in his day, often with a theatrical background, of which he gained firsthand experience during a two-year period as an actor-manager. Merrick also lived in South Africa as a young man, working for a brief period in a diamond mine. A fine literary craftsman, Merrick preferred writing stories to novels. "His short stories, modeled on the French, especially Maupassant, have taken over something of French social ideas as well as Gallic wit and subtlety." - Millett, Contemporary British Literature, 3rd. ed., p. 359. Same format as Hodder & Stoughton's twelve-volume edition of THE WORKS OF LEONARD MERRICK (1918--1919). NCBEL III 1069. Touch of rubbing to spine ends, small damp stain to rear cover, free endpapers tanned, a very good copy with generally clean and bright binding. (#116652).

Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-xi [xii] xiii-xv [xvi] [1] 2-371 [372: blank], original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. First edition. Twenty short stories, some criminous. His sixth collection of short stories. A highly regarded author of literary fiction in his day, often with a theatrical background, of which he gained firsthand experience during a two-year period as an actor-manager. Merrick also lived in South Africa as a young man, working for a brief period in a diamond mine. A fine literary craftsman, Merrick preferred writing stories to novels. "His short stories, modeled on the French, especially Maupassant, have taken over something of French social ideas as well as Gallic wit and subtlety." - Millett, Contemporary British Literature, 3rd. ed., p. 359. The only book original to Hodder & Stoughton's twelve-volume edition of THE WORKS OF LEONARD MERRICK (1918--1919). One of the stories here, "The Judgment of Paris," is a rather mordant conte cruel with a wonderful twist at the end. "The Last Effect" is a brilliant and grisly conte cruel about infidelity, and features a cabinet created for a stage illusion. Hubin (1994), p. 569. NCBEL III 1069. A clean, tight, very good copy with bright cover stamping. (#116648).

Octavo, pp. [1-6] 1-274 -281: "opinions of the critics" [282: blank], original red cloth, front panel stamped in black, spine panel stamped in gold, publisher's monogram stamped in blind on rear panel, bottom edge untrimmed. First edition. "Sixteen short stories, some criminous. His third collection of short stories. A highly regarded author of literary fiction in his day, often with a theatrical background, of which he gained firsthand experience during a two-year period as an actor-manager. Merrick also lived in South Africa as a young man, working for a brief period in a diamond mine. A fine literary craftsman. In 'The Fairy Poodle,' two starving artists, Julien and Juliette, man and wife, live hand-to-mouth in a Paris garret but are happy. When the wife, a writer of fairy tales, brings home a dirty poodle she has rescued from the streets, she charms the concierge into letting them keep it by making up on the spot a roman a clef fairy tale in which the rescue of the poodle brings good fortune to them and everyone else. Sure enough, a reward is offered for a return of the poodle to its wealthy owner, but Juliette demurs to take money for her action, counting it too base. The Countess agrees to come by and look at her husband's pictures. Time passes and the would-be patron doesn't come by. Eviction and starvation loom over them. The story keeps us on edge: should we see this couple (nicknamed 'the children') as they are nicknamed -- enchantingly innocent? Or as self-indulgently naïve? The high-wire act continues until the last page, when the countess finally arrives, apparently vindicating the faith of the couple, yet not quite dislodging from our minds the ambivalence we feel about 'the children.' A sophisticated story with a deceptive simplicity. Like a genius imprisoned in a garret, it is a fairy tale trapped in a work of naturalism: Perrault hiding under the mask of Zola -- or is it the other way around? The other stories in the collection play with the same polarity. Most are set in Paris and feature a recurring cast of Bohemians. 'The Last Effect' is a brilliant and grisly conte cruel about infidelity and features a cabinet created for a stage illusion." - Robert Eldridge. Hubin (1994), p. 569. NCBEL III 1069. Mild rubbing to cloth at spine ends and corner tips, a bright, tight, very good copy with clean interior. (#116650).

Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-316 [317-320: ads], original blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold and blind, bottom edge untrimmed. First edition. The author's tenth and last collection, fourteen short stories, some criminous. "His short stories, modeled on the French, especially Maupassant, have taken over something of French social ideas as well as Gallic wit and subtlety." - Millett (ed), Contemporary British Literature, 3rd. ed., p. 359. Hubin (1994), p. 569. Not in NCBEL. A fine copy in fine pictorial dust jacket with some dust soiling to white background, mostly rear panel. A sharp copy with a striking jacket design. (#116649).