WATSON, H ENRY B RERETON MARRIOTT (3 résultats)

Octavo, pp. [i-vii] viii [1] 2-232 + 16-page publisher's catalogue dated "October 1892" inserted at rear, original dark blue cloth, spine panel stamped in gold, all edges untrimmed. First edition. Thirty-two short stories. "Mixed collection, mostly contes cruels in an archaic setting, also 'The Devil of the Marsh,' a classic horror tale of a paludal Circe." - Robert Knowlton. "The Brazen Cross" is a supernatural tale about the intersection of Christian and pagan spirituality in modern England. "The House of Dishonour" has some notably weird and Gothic atmosphere. In "The Sword of the Kadi" a lover plays a curious board game against the ruler (the Kadi) to determine whether he will be allowed to marry a certain maiden. "The Dead Immortals" is a fanciful essay about the survival of ancient nymphs and spirits. "This Body of Death" and "The Shadow on the Year" are meditative and macabre sketches in the tradition of the memento mori. "Over the Fire" is a meditation on the propensity of fires to elicit daydreaming. The author wrote the polar femme fatale fantasy, MARAHUNA (1888), as well as other fantastic material. "Probably more talented than is generally recognized." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, p. 514. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 776. Eaton Catalogue, volume 3, p. 479. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978) or Reginald (1979; 1992). Wolff 7085. Some scuffing to cloth, some tanning to endpapers, a sound, good copy with bright spine stamping. (#171875).

Octavo, pp. [i-vii] viii [1] 2-232 + 16-page publisher's catalogue dated "October 1892" inserted at rear, original dark blue cloth, spine panel stamped in gold, all edges untrimmed. First edition. Thirty-two short stories. "Mixed collection, mostly contes cruels in an archaic setting, also 'The Devil of the Marsh,' a classic horror tale of a paludal Circe." - Robert Knowlton. "The Brazen Cross" is a supernatural tale about the intersection of Christian and pagan spirituality in modern England. "The House of Dishonour" has some notably weird and Gothic atmosphere. In "The Sword of the Kadi" a lover plays a curious board game against the ruler (the Kadi) to determine whether he will be allowed to marry a certain maiden. "The Dead Immortals" is a fanciful essay about the survival of ancient nymphs and spirits. "This Body of Death" and "The Shadow on the Year" are meditative and macabre sketches in the tradition of the memento mori. "Over the Fire" is a meditation on the propensity of fires to elicit daydreaming. The author wrote the polar femme fatale fantasy, MARAHUNA (1888), as well as other fantastic material. "Probably more talented than is generally recognized." - Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, p. 514. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 776. Eaton Catalogue, volume 3, p. 479. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978) or Reginald (1979; 1992). Wolff 7085. Some scuffing and spotting to cloth, spine ends and corners a bit turned, a bright, very good copy. (#171746).

Octavo, pp. [1-8] [1] 2-298 [299-300: ads], fly leaves at front and rear, original dark blue cloth, front and spine panels stamped in orange. First edition. The author's first novel, dedicated to "To the Author of 'Elsie Venner'" [Oliver Wendell Holmes]. The eponymous female, a member of an unknown Antarctic society living beyond a region of fire, perhaps the Earth's interior, is taken to England by the narrator. ". the last survivor of a separate Creation; she is supernaturally attractive but has no moral sensibility, and cannot adapt to the world of men. The parable is unsubtle, but it features one of nineteenth-century fantasy's more intriguing femmes fatales." - Barron (ed), Fantasy Literature 2-153. "A slow-moving and thought-provoking work in the tradition of the conte philosophique. It's also an early instance of the scientific romance that was just then taking shape. It begins at sea near the Antarctic, and the story gets interesting, in the time-honored manner of imaginary voyages, when the ship is blown off course by a storm. It approaches a region of flames, through which emerges a boat serenely occupied by a beautiful, golden-haired woman whose name the narrator/hero (Grayhurst) telepathically understands to be 'Marahuna.' He is the ship's scientist, and the novel is veined with speculation about unusual forms of life occupying extreme regions of the earth and sea. Marahuna is, indeed, not only impervious to fire but draws strength from it. This could have led easily to talk of salamanders and a warm antiquarian mood of the occult; instead the mood is cool and forward-looking. Grayhurst becomes the creature's legal guardian when the ship returns to London, and the story turns -- sometimes awkwardly -- into a comedy (or tragedy) of manners. Those of Marahuna (now 'Marie') lack all understanding of human passions such as anger, fear, jealousy, compassion. She is 'inexplicable, passionless, terrible.' A parallel is explicitly drawn between her and the weird heroine of Holmes' ELSIE VENNER. Unstated is her nevertheless clear resemblance to the heroine of Haggard's SHE. A flawed but noteworthy book." - Robert Eldridge. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1663. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2311. Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 776. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, pp. 36-7. Bleiler (1978), p. 203. Reginald 14916. Not in Wolff. Cloth rubbed at spine ends and corner tips, a tight, clean, very good copy. Bookplate of Stuart Teitler affixed to front paste-down. An uncommon book. (#150128).