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Hardcover. Etat : Good. 1st Edition. Notes For children. Subjects Adventure stories. | Girls -- Juvenile fiction Edinburgh : Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1893 320 p. ; 20 cm.

First editions of all three volumes of Jane Austenâ s masterpiece, her bestselling book during her lifetime which remains a landmark of English literature. 12mo, three volumes bound in full mottled calf with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine, double gilt ruling and botanical gilt scrolling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins, all edges speckled black. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine. A very attractive example of this significant work in English literature. Originally titled First Impressions, Pride and Prejudice was written between October 1796 and August 1797 when Jane Austen was not yet twenty-one, the same age, in fact, as her fictional heroine Elizabeth Bennet. After an early rejection by the publisher Cadell who had not even read it, Austen's novel was finally bought by Egerton in 1812 for £110. It was published in late January 1813 in a small edition of approximately 1500 copies and sold for 18 shillings in boards. â The size of the edition is not knownâ ¦ perhaps 1500 copiesâ ¦ The first edition was sold off very rapidly and a second one was printed in the same yearâ (Keynes, 8). A novel of manners, the story follows the character development of young Elizabeth Bennet, an independent young lady who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. â Elizabethâ s own energy and defiance of character respond to Rousseauâ s and the popular notion of the pliant, submissive female. None of her novels delighted Jane Austen more than Pride and Prejudiceâ ¦ She had given a rare example of fiction as a highly intelligent formâ ¦ This remains her most popular and widely translated novelâ (Honan, 313-20). Pride and Prejudice has consistently appeared near the top of lists of "most-loved books" among literary scholars and the reading public. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, with over 20 million copies sold, and has inspired many derivatives in modern literature. For more than a century, dramatic adaptations, reprints, unofficial sequels, films, and televised versions of Pride and Prejudice have portrayed the memorable characters and themes of the novel, reaching mass audiences. The most popular film adaptations include the 1995 BBC television adaptation starring Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and the 2005 film directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy. In very good condition. Title page of Vol. I supplied in facsimile and pages [1]-4 re-inserted and tipped in.

4to. 87 pages written in Latin in Lautrec's hand, as well as his ownership signature on the first page, H. de T. Lautrec". Although he adds "Fables d'Esope" beneath his name, the passages cover a vast array of topics typical of a 19th-century child's education, including summaries of events in classical history, moral reflections, religious lessons, and philosophical musings. Each piece is about a page long and headed with a brief title. Brief translated excerpts follow:The notebook begins with a passage entitled "Men s Firmest Defense Is in Piety," in part: "O Lord, blessed are they who have put their hope in You! For when desolation invades their spirits, oppressed with the burden of affairs, they flee to You, and then, forgetting their sorrows, they draw strength and peace of mind from their source. You shelter them in a paternal embrace and spread before them the sacred light of faith O most sweet, nourishing religion and most holy faith, who can live without you." Lautrec was raised by his devoutly religious and overbearing mother, and began his formal schooling in 1872 at the prestigious Lycee Fontanes in Paris, but withdrew in 1875 due to his poor health. His mother's presence in his life at this time is certainly discernible in his writings on religion and philosophy in this notebook.The piece on page 30 is headed "On Socrates," which is followed by "On Fables." The latter, in part: "What is a fable but a tale for the improvement of men s morals, generally wrapped in an amusing image, in which the pleasant and the useful, although most unlike in nature, conspire to mutually adorn and defend one another? What do you suppose that those ancient inventors of tales intended with so many and such ingenious fictions? Just to tickle the ears of their readers with a vain arrangement of words? Not at all, but rather, when they put trees and animals on stage, their aim was that the bad, contemplating their deformity as in a mirror, would avoid rashness in counsel, avarice in the search for wealth, pride in command, and fraud in all aspects of life." This is an especially interesting piece, as Lautrec studied the fables of Phaedrus and La Fontaine while in school and these likely informed the allegorical animals that appear in his late drawings.He further explores the classical world in "On the Phoenicians" on page 43, in part: "The Tyrians took their origin from the Phoenicians. Those who inhabited the seashore, being troubled by frequent movements of the earth in their homeland, founded a city that they called Sidona on account of the abundance of fish on those coasts, for the Phoenicians call fish sidon. Then many years later, having been driven out by the king of the Ascalonians, they took to their ships, leaving behind their homeland, and founded the city of Tyre a year before the fall of Troy." Although Lautrec s artwork presents an extreme departure from the classical style, his familiarity with the stories can be seen in his body of work, including his portrayals of Mademoiselle Cocyle as Helen of Troy in La Belle Helene.The last page takes a moralistic slant on classical figures in a passage entitled "On Flatterers," in part: "Flatterers think that they can seek the favor of kings to the extent that they imitate them, but it often happens that they reproduce their vices rather than their virtues, as one or another example will sufficiently demonstrate to be true. It is said that Alexander s head was bent down toward his shoulder, and his friends were in the habit of also going around with their heads bent down toward their shoulders. When Plato first came to Syracuse, Dionysius the Tyrant immediately devoted himself entirely to geometry, from which it is easily understood that everyone consequently became a geometer, following the king s example." Lautrec takes a strong stance against flattery in this passage, a principle he certainly held throughout his life his paintings were decidedly unflattering and direct.Interior pages in fine condition, with general wear, staining, and soiling to the covers. This is an incredibly fascinating notebook rife with content from the young Toulouse-Lautrec. It dates to what was arguably the most crucial period of his development, during the time that he broke his legs, permanently succumbing to dwarfism. While recuperating, he incessantly practiced drawing and painting. A truly magnificent and significant notebook.

First edition in English of the authorâ s masterpiece, published just one year after the original French edition and before the American first, the Richard Manney copy. Octavo, 2 volumes, original publisher's terracotta cloth, decoratively blind-embossed, gilt titles to the spine. Twenty wood-engraved plates after Henry Valentin. In near fine condition with only light rubbing to the extremities and toning, with the bookplate of legendary collector Richard Manney. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell and chemise box. A superior example, scarce in the original cloth, with exceptional provenance. The Count of Monte Cristo, in particular, is "perhaps the outstanding work of fiction to reveal the futility of human vengeance, even when it attains its utmost completeness. Maurice Baring calls it the most popular book in the world" (Frank Wild Reed). First published in 1845-46, Dumasâ â most brilliantly successful novelâ (Harvey & Heseltine, 232) expresses â the frustrated dreams of its era and the deep aspirations of Dumas himself to unlimited knowledge, power and fameâ (Amelita Marinetti). The story takes place in France, Italy, and islands in the Mediterranean during the era of the Bourbon Restoration through the reign of Louis-Philippe of France. It begins on the day that Napoleon left his first island of exile, Elba, beginning the Hundred Days period when Napoleon returned to power. The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book, an adventure story centrally concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness. It centers on a man who is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes from jail, acquires a fortune, and sets about exacting revenge on those responsible for his imprisonment. "The Count of Monte Cristo has become a fixture of Western civilization's literature, as inescapable and immediately identifiable as Mickey Mouse, and the story of Little Red Riding Hood (Lucy Sante). "One of the best thrillers ever written" (Reid, 134).

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good+. 1st Edition. The Moonstone Signed by Wilkie Collins First Edition Tinsley Brothers 1868. London. Published in three volumes. Original publisher's violet cloth covers. Spines lettered in gilt. Volume I (viii) + 316 pp Volume II (vi) + 298 pp. Single leaf of publisher's advertisements before half title. Volume III (iv) + 312 pp. Publisher's advertisements pp 311-312. From the Frank J. Hogan library, with his bookplate to front pastedown. Signed by Wilkie Collins to slip also affixed to front pastedown: 'with Mr Wilkie Collin's / compliments'. With an accompanying signed, dated and monogrammed personal notepaper leaf loosely inserted. Further images available on request. Signed by Author(s).

First edition, first printing, first issue, of Hugo's gothic masterpiece, in a contemporary binding. "This first edition. is the rarest of all the works of Victor Hugo; it has had a resounding impact worldwide, and is one of the most difficult titles of the Romantic period to obtain" (Carteret). Copies of this issue preserved in contemporary bindings are exceedingly scarce. Published on 16 March 1831 in an edition of 1,100 copies, the first printing was issued in four separate groups of 275 each, with the subsequent three issues being fictitiously labelled as the second, third and fourth editions on their respective title pages. "The success of this darkly moving novel was immediate, establishing Hugo as the premier historical novelist of his time. Lamartine called him 'the Shakespeare of prose fiction'" (The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French). Clouzot 86-87: "Les exemplaires de la premiere tranche, sans mention d'edition et sans nom d'auteur sont extremement rares"; Carteret Romantique I, 400; Lhermitte 317; Ray French Illustrated Book 180; Vicaire IV, 256. 2 volumes, octavo (200 x 120 mm). Contemporary tree sheep, spines gilt with red morocco lettering- and numbering-pieces. Housed in marbled slipcase. With half-titles. Wood-engraved title vignettes by Tony Johannot. Provenance: Juste Daniel Olivier, 1807-1876, Swiss poet (calligraphic gift inscription signed "Olivier" with red wax seal on front flyleaf, dated 19 April 1832, recipient illegible). Joints and extremities discreetly restored, joints rubbed at head, some pale foxing, a very good copy.

First Edition, First Issue on thicker paper with one blank leaf at rear and no ads with the original endpapers. Presentation copy signed by the author, Bram Stoker, to Frank A. Munsey (1854-1925), the great American newspaper and magazine publisher. Inscribed: ÒFrank A. Munsey from Bram Stoker, 22.6.97.Ó Undoubtedly, Stoker presented the book to Munsey in an unsuccessful hope that Munsey would serialize Dracula in one of his magazines. MunseyÕs pulp magazines Argosy, Munsey's Magazine, All-Story Magazine all had distinguished records of printing fantasy fiction. This book is beautifully bound in a modern full black morocco leather binding with gilt-stamped red labels, raised bands, and tooling. With gilt inner dentelles with terrific blood red marbled endpapers. Enclosed in a matching morocco and cloth clamshell box.

Hardback. 1st Edition. Firstnbsp;Edition. Three volumes bound by the renowned Riviere and Son binders. Volume I 4 304pp without add. (as is common) with half title. Volume II with half title 4 304 pp, bound with the original cloth from the front and rear boards together with the spine to the rear of Volume II. Volume III with half titles 4 311 pp. errors in paging: p.32 and p.225 are incorrectly numbered 23 and 252 respectively. All three volumes are bound in early full crushed green Morocco by Riviere, featuring gilt titles and triple ruled border, with gilt compartments to each section of the spine. Five raised bands with the date to the bottom of each volume. This is a first edition of the author's finest novel; one of the most groundbreaking and enduring works of English literature.nbsp;Charlotte Bront's semiautobiographical heroine was something completely new in Victorian fiction: a woman confronting men on equal terms, telling her story with passion and honest feeling. The contents are clear and bright, and free from damage. Bookplate to front endpaper of each volume; some light rubbing to the front boards of each. Smith 2; Sadlier 346. A fabulous example of this iconic work of literature, being the author's very firstnbsp;novel.nbsp; book.

Gogol's masterpiece with "All of Russia" --- First edition of Gogol's landmark masterpiece: with the very rare printed upper wrapper. "One of the great novels of nineteenth-century Russia" (Fekula) by "19th-century Russia's greatest comic writer [and] one of the supreme masters of Russian prose" (Terras). Of Ukrainian birth and Russian expression, Nikolai Gogol (1809-52) began writing his "paradoxical epic" in 1836 at the encouragement of his friend, then already Russia's main poet Aleksand Pushkin who quickly "recognized [in Gogol] a unique and exceptional phenomenon" (Terras). Most of the next six years Gogol spent in Italy where he created his quintessential image of Russia in its diversity and contradictions. "The novel, in other words, is an artistic document that sought to include, alongside comic and lyric delight, "all of Russia" Russian types, manners, speech presented as a statement about Russia's current spiritual state, and about its ultimate destiny" (Terras). "Perhaps never had Gogol put so much worldly experience, heartfelt endearments and feigned anger into his work as he did in 1842 when he began publishing Dead Souls," the critic Pavel Annenkov later recalled. The novel's first censor in Moscow was afraid to give his permission for printing; Gogol then sent the manuscript to St. Petersburg through the influential critic Vissarion Belinskii, having asked for help Prince Vladimir Odoevskii, poet Petr Viazemskii, and his good friend, a maid of honour to the Imperial court, Aleksandra Smirnova-Rosset. Finally, Gogol rewrote some of the sensitive parts and allowed to change the title from "Dead Souls" to "The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls", thus shifting the emphasis from political satire to a picaresque novel. The "poem" was finally published in 1842 in 2400 copies; and Gogol's status of a contemporary classic became firmly established in Russian society: "with almost unanimous enthusiasm [.] he was now read by everyone, from Nicholas I to ordinary people and literary critics of all political views" (Babitskaia). Terras notes that Dead Souls galvanised "the powerful energies of 19th-century Russian fiction itself". The young Fedor Dostoevsky knew the novel by heart; in his Diary of a Writer he describes how he went "to see one of his old friends; we talked about Dead Souls all night long and read it I don't even remember how many times" (quote from Babitskaia). The next ten years of Gogol's life (1842-52) would centre around his vain struggles to complete the next two parts, as a parallel to Dante's Divine Comedy, but he deemed none of what he wrote worthy of publication. Shortly before his death, Gogol burned the second volume of his poem; its accidental surviving pieces and the writer's draft were later recomposed by the heirs and published in 1855 as an unfinished, posthumous second part; a third volume was never written. Provenance: Physical description:Large 8vo (25 x 17 cm). 475 pp. incl. half-title and title. Original illustrated upper wrapper bound in near-contemporary black half-sheep over brown marbled boards, flat spine with direct lettering in gilt, date at foot, dark grey floral endpapers, top edge red. Condition:Wrapper a bit stained and tightly bound in gutter, no lower wrapper; small spotting, foxing or staining throughout, mostly marginal, first lower fly-leaf with handwritten table of contents in Russian (such a leaf was never printed so it is not missing), small illegible ink stamp to last lower fly-leaf. Bibliography:Victor Terras, Handbook of Russian Literature, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1991, pp. 175-176. Varvara Babitskaia, "Mertvye dushi, Nikolai Gogol" // Polka academy, 2018. Fekula 4716; Kilgour 345; Smirnov-Sokolskii, Moia biblioteka, 610.

First edition, first printing. Signed Limited Edition. Small 4to. Stunning contemporary orange morocco by Zaehnsdorf, titles and ivy leaf tooling in gilt to the spine, upper board with titles in gilt, upper and lower boards decorated with acorns and oak, ivy, sycamore and willow leaves in gilt. The inner dentelles are decorated with ivy leaves in gilt, the binder's name stamp in gilt at the front and exhibition stamp in gilt at the rear. Top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Retaining the original upper wrapper. Illustrated title page in red with black vignette, printed title page in red and black. Illustrated with a frontispiece and two further plates by Walter Crane, each in two states, and 12 head and tailpieces by Jacomb Hood. A beautiful, near fine copy. Imperceptible repair to the upper joint, minor toning to the leather. The contents with light offsetting to the endpapers and a faint mark to the margin of one page are otherwise clean and bright throughout. Housed in a recent full black morocco, felt lined solander case, titles in gilt to the spine, and grey cloth slipcase. Limited to 75 large paper copies of which this is hand numbered 36 and signed by Oscar Wilde and the publisher David Nutt on the limitation page. A superb example of the rare first edition (preceding the trade edition of 1000 copies, issued later the same year), in an exceptional contemporary exhibition quality autumnal foliate binding. The Happy Prince is Oscar Wilde's first and best known collection of children's stories, including "The Selfish Giant", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Devoted Friend" and "The Remarkable Rocket". Wilde's "Reputation as an author dated from the publication of The Happy Prince and Other Tales in London in May 1888. The Athenaeum compared him to Hans Christian Andersen and Pater wrote to say that 'The Selfish Giant' was 'perfect in its kind,' and the whole book written in 'pure English' - a wonderful compliment" (Ellmann, Richard: Oscar Wilde p. 282). [Mason 314]. Provenance: Charles Mills, Lord Hillingdon (1830 - 1898); Sotheby's sale of 1932, lot 454; purchased by book dealer and co-founder of the Society for Theatre Research Ifan Kyrle Fletcher (with his neat pencil note recording the sale on the front pastedown); Helen Hambro, née Boyson (1936 - 2004). Further details and images for any of the items listed are available on request. Lucius Books welcomes direct contact with our customers.

First edition. Six parts in three volumes. 8vo. 225x150mm. Vol 1. Part I. [4], 297 [1bl],146; Part II. [4], 186. Vol 2. Part III. [4], 284; Part IV. [4], 336; Vol 3. Part V. [4], 323; Part VI. [4], 290. First edition issue points are present: part III, p227 for p127 and p265 for p255 and part IV, p153 for p253. Map on p239 of part IV. Smartly bound in modern red half morocco, marbled paper covered boards, with the title in French (Guerre et Paix) to the spine. Top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. Slight rubbing to corners. Internally very good, this is an excellent copy in superb condition of one of the cornerstones of Russian, and indeed any, literature. Described by Turgenev as "the epic, the history novel and the vast picture of the whole nation's life", War and Peace began as a serialised work called 1805 which first appeared in the magazine Russkiy Vestnik (The Russian Messenger). Parts of the novel were published in 1867 but Tolstoy was unhappy with it and set about a substantial revision of the work, his wife Sophia copying seven complete drafts. The final version, published as War and Peace, differed markedly from the part-serialised 1805 and was, despite some critics' difficulty in classifying the work, an instant success and recognised as marking a significant shift in what literary fiction could do.

Small octavo, pp. [1-8] 1-151 [152], original decorated tan cloth, front and rear panels stamped in purple, spine panel stamped in light blue; binding measures 18.2 cm vertically; "HEINEMANN" at base of spine set in 12-point type; top edge uncut, fore and bottom edges rough trimmed. First British edition, second cloth binding, no inserted publisher's catalogue. Signed by Wells on the half title page. The author's first SF novel. "Many rank it as Wells's best book, certainly its qualities are striking and direct . All time-travel stories since owe a debt to Wells, none has become so acclaimed." - Bleiler (ed), Science Fiction Writers, p. 26. "THE TIME MACHINE might be considered the first work of modern science-fiction, and it is still the classic statement of an important subgenre . A remarkable work, and necessary reading." - Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 2325. Anatomy of Wonder (1976) 2-161; (1981) 1-171; (1987) 1-103; (1995) 1-103; and (2004) II-1232. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 800. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 21. Lewis, Utopian Literature, p. 207. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 227. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 1175. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 107. Survey of Science Fiction Literature V, pp. 2287-92. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, pp. 62-3. Bleiler (1978), p. 205. Reginald 15085. Currey (2002), p. 424 (binding C). Hammond B1. Wells 4. Neatly signed and dated 1904 in pencil by an early owner on the front free endpaper. Tipped onto the front paste-down is a lengthy letter of provenance detailing where and when this copy was signed by Wells (17 January 1939 at a P.E.N. Club dinner). Hint of tanning to spine panel, some mild spotting to front free endpaper and darkening to rear endpapers, a nearly fine copy. A lovely copy with a bright, clean and unworn binding. THE TIME MACHINE is rarely found inscribed or signed by Wells. (#151827).

First American Edition; with some minor textual differences and an epilogue not included in the English edition. Some cloth soiling and wear; some old, hardly noticeable mending to the front endpaper; very good in a custom clamshell box. Presentation copy; inscribed by Wells with two drawings, '[drawing of a fireplace and a chair and a steaming bowl] To J. Maclaren Cobban, from H.G. Wells [drawing of a small figure - presumably Wells - with a bowl labeled ÔGRUEL'] When they were both ill. 1898.' Cobban was primarily a novelist of adventure and fantasy fiction, and was also a contributor to the Strand Magazine. Inscribed copies of the Wells 'scientific romances' are especially scarce. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.

First Edition; first printing of the author's first book (with all first printing points called for, including the proper wording on the title page and the various misnumbered or unnumbered pages). Publisher's quarter morocco and pebble-grained cloth binding; spine gilt-decorated; all edges gilt; ribbon marker. Tiny bookplate inside the front cover; minor discoloration of the endpapers; an unusually fine copy. This adventure novel of exploration in unknown Africa confused the reading public of France with its plausible story and contemporary travel book style. It was, of course, fiction and the maiden effort of a former attorney, stockbroker and unsuccessful playwright. Verne's story of an imaginary balloon voyage was almost certainly influenced by Poe, and elements of the story, which, strictly speaking, are not truly fantasy or science fiction, anticipate those works of his that are. This novel also began one of the closest and long-lived relationships in publishing; Hetzel acted as both editor and publisher and deserves considerable credit for Verne's artistic and commercial success. This book (nor most of the rest of Verne's work, for that matter) was not served well by Hollywood. The 1962 adaptation is a hokey bit of nonsense. All books described as first editions are first printings unless otherwise noted.

Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1] 2-584 577-584 593- 868 [note: issue 74 is misnumbered issue 73 and the pagination of number 73 is duplicated], printed in double columns, woodcut illustrations, nineteenth-century three-quarter brown polished calf and marbled boards. First book edition. A lurid penny dreadful published initially as a serial in 109 weekly issues, 1845-1847, and here as a book in 1847. This long novel (864 double-column pages; 220 chapters) was a major influence on later vampire fiction. It includes many of the now standard vampire tropes and it is also the first example of the "sympathetic vampire," a vampire who despises his condition but is nonetheless a slave to it. "The first appearance of the vampire Sir Francis Varney marks a lurid achievement of the horrific; his tinlike eyes, taloned hands, and terrifying teeth are calculated to elicit shudders and revulsion. His victimization of young lovelies places him in line with Stoker's DRACULA and a host of other vampires whose intentions are undeniably sexual . A pulp classic no aficionado of horror fiction can ignore" (Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV). ". unquestionably the most famous of the Lloyd bloods . A striking example of low-level popular fiction for the working classes (and adolescents) ." (Bleiler). Baron, ed., Fantasy and Horror (1999) 1-132. Baron, ed., Horror Literature 2-87. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1629. Summers, A Gothic Bibliography, p. 543. Tymn, ed., Horror Literature 2-81. Bleiler (1978), p. 172. Reginald 14580. Calf worn at edges, joints rubbed, hairline crack along lower outer front joint repaired, calf refurbished. Mild spotting and foxing to text block, but much less than usually encountered. The illustrations are clean and sharp. Overall, an excellent copy of a rare book. Enclosed in quarter leather clamshell box with leather spine label. (#168021).

First edition, first issue, one of only 750 copies of the last and most accomplished work of fiction during Jamesâ apprentice years. Octavo, three volumes, original cloth. In near fine condition with volume one rebacked with original spine laid down. Housed in a custom half clamshell and chemises box. Rare and desirable, especially in this condition. The Portrait of a Lady was well received at its time of publication. James began with the simple idea of a young American woman confronting her destiny, and from this created the character of the protagonist, and a detailed plot. It presents, typically of James, a trans-Atlantic panorama, and an examination of the old affluent world of Europe and Britain colliding with the new harsher world of America. James examines the psychology of human consciousness and motivation. â The Portrait of a Lady is entirely successful in giving one the sense of having met somebody far too radiantly good for this world" (Rebecca West). It was adapted in 1996 by director Jane Campion, into film starring Nicole Kidman as Isabel, John Malkovich as Osmond, and Barbara Hershey as Madame Merle.

Large octavo, pp. [1-3] 4-84, printed in double columns, inserted frontispiece, publisher's green wrappers printed in black. First edition in English. Verne's third book, DE LA TERRE Á LA LUNE: TRAJET DIRECT EN 97 HEURES (1865), was first published in book form in English as FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON: PASSAGE DIRECT IN 97 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES . by the Newark Printing and Publishing Co. in the latter half of 1869 as a paperbound book following its publication in seventeen installments over a two-month period commencing June 10th in the NEWARK DAILY AND WEEKLY JOURNAL OF NEW JERSEY. This edition of FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON was the second book by Verne to be published in English, preceded only by the D. Appleton and Company edition of FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON, published in New York 13 March 1869. Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 1-93 and (2004) II-1180. Taves and Michaluk V003. Myers 26 ("This will probably rank for all time as the most rare of all Verne editions!"). 30 mm chip from lower spine end and 15 mm chip from upper spine end, tiny chips from front corner tips, 10x10 mm v-chip from back wrapper at spine fold, several stains and some soiling to wrappers, a very good copy, internally clean and tight. A legendary rarity, the Library of Congress holding one of the several known copies, another was found by us a few years ago and sold to a private buyer. This is the Larry Solomon copy which he purchased from J & S Graphics sometime in the 1970s. (#154553).

First edition, one of 750 copies only, of this milestone of French literature. A pioneering psychological novel, Stendhal's bildungsroman "brings to life the spirit of an age" (Taylor, p. 335) with its satirical portrait of the materialistic society of Restoration France. It exerted a major influence on later writers including Proust, Gide, Camus, and Nietzsche. "When The Red and the Black was first published on 13 November 1830, it was a novel ahead of its time. In a curious way this was literally so since its title-page bore the date 1831 and a reconstruction of the historical time-scale within the novel suggests that the events of the last few chapters take place also in 1831. But it was ahead of its time principally because it was uncomfortably topical. the author pulled no punches in his depiction of contemporary society, and his 'Chronicle of 1830' presents a comprehensive and damning account of France at the time" (Pearson, pp. ix-x). Le Rouge et le Noir was inspired by the real story of Antoine Bethet, a young man who was executed in 1828 for shooting his mistress in a local church. The book shocked its contemporaries and reviews upon publication were mostly critical. Stendhal's anticlerical stance led to the Vatican placing the book on the index of forbidden books in 1897; it was banned in Russia by Czar Nicholas I in 1850 and purged from Spanish libraries by Francisco Franco in 1939. It was only during the 20th century, well after the author's death, that the novel was recognized as "one of the most boldly original masterworks of European fiction" (Alter & Cosman, p. 189). Bibliothèque nationale de France, En français dans le texte, 247; Vicaire I 455. Robert Alter & Carol Cosman, A Lion for Love, A Critical Biography of Stendhal, 1986; Roger Pearson, "Introduction", in Catherine Slater, ed., The Red and the Black, 1991; French L. Taylor, Companion to the French Novel, 2007. 2 volumes, octavo (206 x 126 mm). Contemporary purple cloth, smooth spines divided by blind fillets and lettered in gilt, covers blocked in blind, edges sprinkled brown. Wood engraved vignettes on title pages, both by Porret after designs of Henry Monnier. 20th-century ownership stamp clumsily washed from title pages, near-contemporary ownership inscription on front free endpapers, occasional 20th-century pencil annotations in French and German (Sütterlin script and shorthand). Fading to spines, cloth lightly bumped and rubbed, inner hinges starting, book blocks firm, occasional faint foxing and marks to contents (a few from pressed flowers, not preserved), otherwise clean and well-preserved. A very good copy.

Unbound. Etat : Fine. First edition. Quarto. String-tied quarter calf and cloth portfolio titled in gilt ("Tahiti."). The portfolio holds 16 different mounted albumen prints of Tahiti, each image is 4¾" x 6¼", mounted on 9½" x 12½" sheets. Some repair to the spine of the cloth portfolio, some small splits at the folds, very good; the images are about fine with slight soiling on some of the mats (one image displays some damage but only as copied from the negative). Each print bears a blind stamp on the mat: "Courret Hermanos Fotografos Calle Mercaderes 197 Lima," and is accompanied by an autograph notation in pencil identifying the scene on the verso of the individual mats. Among the earliest photographs of Tahiti, preceded only by the work of Gustav Viaud who arrived one year before. Courret was a French-born photographer who arrived in Peru in 1860, and formed his own studio with his brother in 1863. He left Lima in September of 1863 to visit Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands. One can follow his itinerary in the contemporary notices that appeared in *Le Messager de Tahiti,* the local newspaper published weekly in Papeete. He left Tahiti in March of 1864 and returned to Lima, worked in his studio as a photographer, and sold the photographs of Tahiti individually and in groups. This collection includes views of the capitol city of Papeete with Europeanized streets, government buildings, single story homes, a small dock with dugout canoes, native huts, native children dressed in white assembled seated in the forecourt of a building (perhaps a church), several views of the harbor with sailing vessels, a waterfall, and street scenes. Courret's images of Peru and surrounding South American countries appear in the marketplace (nine auction records in the last 14 years, all for single images), but even single images of his Tahitian views are exceptionally uncommon. Rare. *OCLC* locates a single similar portfolio (Getty Museum) with only seven prints (under the title *Views of Tahiti*, noting that the title was devised by the cataloger); absent from both Kroepelien, *Tuimata* and O'Reilly and Reitman, *Bibliographie de Tahiti et de la Polynésis Française*; Trehin, *Tahiti* (pp. 40 - 55). . A remarkable portfolio of rarely seen images.

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. Two manuscript notebooks. Octavos. Each volume numbered in manuscript: [Vol. 1] 174pp.; [Vol. 2] 139pp. Bound in the original dark blue grained morocco over flexible card covers, stamped in gold: "The Fitchburg Rail-Road Company" on each front cover. Stationer's ticket: "Oliver Holman & Co., Boston" on each inside front cover. The leather is a bit rubbed and lightly worn at the joints and edges, both spine backs are rubbed at the head and tail, very good or better. Both notebooks of surveys document the building of the Fitchburg railroad line in 1843-44 at Concord and Weston, including the "straight line" at Walden Pond. As noted by Henry David Thoreau: "The Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where I dwell. I usually go to the village along its causeway, and am, as it were, related to society by this link." Although Thoreau had worked periodically as a surveyor for private property owners and the Town of Concord (he surveyed the 61 acres of Walden Pond in the winter of 1846), the engineer responsible for these surveys of the Fitchburg line was William P. Crocker, who signed several entries. William was the younger brother of Alvah Crocker, who, beginning in 1842, spearheaded the construction of the railroad line across northern Massachusetts that would eventually extend from Boston to Fitchburg and beyond. The Fitchburg Line at Concord was built by Irish laborers, and the train made its first stop at Concord in June, 1844, about a year before Thoreau took up residence at Walden Pond. As noted by Laura Walls, the author of a major biography of Thoreau: "The railroad prompted the entire venture at Walden Pond" - It was the arrival of the railroad in 1844 that prompted Ralph Waldo Emerson to purchase more than 11 acres of land at Walden Pond to protect the woodland from land developers, and upon which Thoreau built his one-room house. As Walls rightly notes, here Thoreau laid the groundwork for the field that would come to be known as ecology, and foresaw the dawn of the Anthropocene: "We have constructed a fate, an *Atropos*, that never turns aside . Men are advertised that at a certain hour and minute these bolts will be shot toward particular points of the compass . the bell rings, and I must get off the track and let the cars go by . ." Most of the notebook entries and plans are written and drawn in ink, together with annotations and a few pages in pencil, in one or possibly two hands. They contain descriptions of the line and land, plans and maps, records and tables of surveying measurements and calculations, monthly costs of work done and by whom it was carried out, and other calculations and associated notes. In addition to a "Survey of Walden Pond," the volumes contain surveys of township properties and privately owned lands at Kendal Green, Weston (including lots owned by Albert Hobbs, Jonathan Warren, Ebenezer Tucker, George Garfield, and several other prominent landowners). Also included are plans and architectural drawings of the proposed Railroad Depot at Concord. A rare, neatly complied set of surveys, providing an important primary historical record of the construction of the Fitchburg line at Concord, of which Thoreau remarks and reflects upon at length in *Walden*.

Hardcover. Etat : vg. First edition. Octavo. 200pp. Period white parchment paper over gray paper boards. "Privately printed at the Press of the Prefecture de Police, by subscription of the members of the principal Parisian clubs." A fascinating and extremely scarce Victorian-era guide to Parisian prostitutes, of the second-half of the 19th century, published anonymously. Also included are women described as courtesans, actress or entertainers with loose morals who had made a name for themselves in Paris. The book is printed in English only and likely was intended for visiting Englishmen. It was never published in French. The work, which has been described as an unprecedented work for the 19th century, in terms of its scope and detail, contains entries providing physical and moral portraits of the women, their personality and proclivities, as well as rather intimate information and sometimes surprisingly detailed biographical information. The directory is organized alphabetically by last name and lists the addresses with descriptions of each of the women. The final pages contain an additional directory of Parisian brothels at rear. Included in the book are the names of a number of women, who have since become known as noted cultural figures of the period, have been associated with historical figures, were French high society figures, or have been connected with literary works, including Laure Hayman (here spelled Heymann, 1851-1940), Cora Pearl (1836-1886), Leonide Leblanc (1842-1894), and Léontine Massin (1847-1901). The work has been referenced only in Peter Mendes' clandestine erotic fiction bibliography. Given the nature of this incomparable work, highly likely that it was compiled using official police information, due the stockily detailed and candid information on the women. It is believed that less than 200 copies were printed. A newspaper article in "Paris au jour le jour" from December (1885?) calls the work defamatory and is signed "Alphonse, de Londres". A very nice copy of this shockingly scarce and notorious publication. Text in English. Binding with some light scratches to the covers, and the tail of the spine bumped. Interior with minor to light instances of sporadic staining and/or smudges, mostly in the margins. Binding quite tight overall. In very good condition. * OCLC lists only 4 copies held worldwide.

Etat : Very good plus. First edition. Rare first printing of this selection of Poe's tales, including "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Included in these twelve tales are the pieces that are often anointed as the first modern detective stories: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Mystery of Marie Roget," and "The Purloined Letter," all featuring his famed character C. Auguste Dupin. It is item number 1 in QUEEN'S QUORUM, which spares no fanfare: "the first important book of detective fiction, the first and the greatest, the cornerstone of cornerstones in any readers' or collectors' guide, the highest of all highspots." The works were selected out of Poe's various magazine publications for printing as the second number in Wiley & Putnam's Library of American Books. Despite the author's private complaints and general grumbles (Poe lamented the number of "analytic" stories in the collection as unrepresentative of his full capacities), Wiley reader Evert Duyckink's astute choices contributed to the volume's relative success. These include "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Black Cat," and "The Gold-Bug," along with a few philosophical dialogues and the lesser-known "Lionizing" - "perhaps as a concession to Poe's unfounded sense of himself as a humorist" (Silverman). Immensely influential: one of the most important short story collections published in the United States. 7'' x 4.75''. Modern half brown goatskin with contemporary marbled boards, sympathetically rebacked to style, spine ruled and lettered in bright gilt. With half-title ("Wiley and Putnam's Library of American Books / Poe's Tales"); bound without advertisements. Imprint of T.B. Smith and H. Ludwig on copyright page. [6], 228 pages. Housed in custom quarter green goatskin slipcase and green cloth chemise. Ownership signatures of Charles L. Swasey to front free endpaper, dated 1849, with shelfmark in same hand; and to title page. Some edgewear and rubbing to boards. Mild foxing to endpapers and some margins.

Etat : Very good plus. First English language edition. Rare first complete English edition of the classic swashbuckling adventure. First published in Paris in 1844, THE THREE MUSKETEERS appeared in England soon thereafter in a variety of shortened and serialized adaptations. Barrow's version, published as part of the Library of Foreign Romance series, was not only the first complete English translation and the most widely read, but among the best for a century and more, with verve and a charming touch of literalism. It must be admitted that neither the literalism nor the completeness is altogether absolute: as the Translator's Preface takes care to reassure its readers, a translation from the French that left nothing at all to the imagination would "pander to profligacy," sullied by those traces of objectionable matter so enticing to Continental sensibilities and so morally objectionable to "those of our fair countrywomen who have not lost the delicacy which is the most endearing of their national charms"; those traces have therefore been safely omitted. What remains does very well. The novel has been the subject of three centuries' worth of dramatic adaptations: from the opera produced in Dumas's lifetime, to a Wodehouse-authored broadway musical, to the 1973 Oliver Reed/Michael York costume extravaganza beloved of middle-school substitute French teachers, to 2009's Barbie and the Three Musketeers. None of these tributes have ever eclipsed the original, which lives and flourishes not by its historical intrigues or even its immortal characters, but by its high spirits, joie de vivre, and dashing style. 7.25'' x 4.75''. Contemporary half brown calf with marbled boards, sympathetically rebacked with original spine laid down. Gilt-lettered burgundy morocco spine label. Translated from the French by William Barrow. Without the additional Library of Foreign Romance series title page, matching Munro 80. Translator's preface bound before Preface to The Library of Foreign Romance. 687, [1] pages. Contemporary ink owner name to front free endpaper, dated 1851. Moderate wear and rubbing to boards, with small indentation to spine. Very slight scattered foxing. Housed in elaborate custom inlaid morocco clamshell case, lined in scarlet wool.

First edition in Russian of Tolstoy's masterpiece. Octavo, 3 volumes, bound in three quarters calf, gilt titles, raised bands. Housed in a custom box. In near fine condition. First editions in Russian are rare. Vladimir Nabokov called Leo Tolstoy s Anna Karenina "one of the greatest love stories in world literature." Matthew Arnold claimed it was not so much a work of art as "a piece of life." Set in imperial Russia, Anna Karenina is a rich and complex meditation on passionate love and disastrous infidelity. First published in book form in Moscow in 1878. Upon first reading it, Dostoyevsky wrote: â Anna Karenina is sheer perfection as a work of art. No European work of fiction of our present day comes anywhere near it.â .

Hardcover. Etat : Near Fine. Original red cloth. Two gatherings a little loose. Minor wear. A very good copy. Half morocco case. First edition of the iconic American Boy s Book. Twain s first novel written without a co-author, Tom Sawyer proved to be one of the most durable works in American literature. By the time of Twain s death, it was his top-selling book. It had been in print continuously since 1876, and has outsold all other Mark Twain works (Rasmussen). Tom Sawyer was the first printed story of a boy in which the hero was recognizable as a boy throughout the whole narrative until Tom Sawyer was written, nearly all the boys of fiction were adults with a lisp, or saintly infants, or mischievous eccentrics in the work of Dickens there were hints of boys that were boys; but Tom was the first full blown boy in all fiction the book is a landmark (Booth Tarkington). This novel of a boy growing up along the Mississippi River is set in a town called St. Petersburg, inspired by Samuel Clemens s hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. The author may have been named Tom after a San Francisco fireman whom he met in June 1863. The real Tom Sawyer was a local hero, famous for rescuing ninety passengers after a shipwreck in 1853. The two were friendly during the author s years in California, often drinking and gambling together. Twain referred to the real Tom Sawyer in Roughing It, but in later years he claimed that he himself was the model for Tom and that Sawyer was not the real name of any person I ever knew, so far as I can remember (see Smithsonian, October 2012). This first edition was issued in England on June 9, 1876, preceding the American edition by six months. It proved to be his most popular work in his lifetime: by the time Mark Twain died, it was his top selling book (Rasmussen, 458). The true first edition of Tom Sawyer is among the most difficult of the great 19th-century American novels to obtain in collector s condition.

Hardcover. Etat : Near Fine. Etat de la jaquette : Good. First edition. Octavo. Original beveled edge decorated green cloth. A trifle rubbed, near fine in a good example of the exceptionally rare dustwrapper. The jacket has moderate overall chipping, and has been professionally reinforced internally at the folds but has no other restoration (i.e. paper added). Housed in a custom full morocco clamshell case. Accompanied by a signed note on the stationary of bibliographer and science fiction dealer L.W. Currey loosely inserted: "Regarding Kip's Hannibal's Man (1878), I know of no earlier dust jacket for a science fiction book. L.W. Currey." Mr. Currey also confirmed that he knew of no other jacketed copy of this title. Collects six stories including the title fantasy, several Christmas ghost stories, and the important science fiction novel, "The Secret of Apollonius Septrio," a tale of the evolution of man and the fate of a scientist who discovers a means to prolong human life and suffers a bizarre fate in the far future. According to Barron, *The Guide to Supernatural Fiction* 952: ".one of the most imaginative early science fiction stories of evolution and one-way time travel." *Hannibal's Man* is a fantasy about a couple on vacation in Switzerland who discover a Carthaginian frozen in a glacier; the Carthaginian is revived and visits modern-day Carthage and Rome. He is overly emotional and prone to violence, and wants to buy the man's wife. Eventually, [spoiler alert] the Carthaginian falls into a crevasse and is refrozen. Although considered by some as a fantasy it is referenced in *Bleiler* as a very early "sleeper awakes" story. *Bleiler* 1232, Clareson *Science Fiction in America* 464. An uncommon tile, previously unknown in jacket, and by all evidence the earliest science fiction novel to appear in a dust jacket.

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. Quarto. pp. [i-v] vi-xvi, [1] 2-420. Illustrated with 19 engraved plates, of which eight are hand-colored and four engraved maps, of which two are folded and one is hand-colored. Inscribed by Joseph Banks to David Hosack on the title page: "For D Hosack from Sir Joseph Banks." Additionally inscribed underneath in pencil by Hosack's daughter Mary to her younger brother Nathaniel: "N.P. Hosack from M.H." Nathaniel's name is overwritten with his signature in ink. Professionally bound in modern period-style lightly speckled calf, gilt spine with dark red morocco title label, both boards tooled in gold and in blind, modern endpapers, contemporary marbled edges. The hand-colored "Chart of the China and Yellow Seas" has been professionally tipped in on the original stub (It has some additional foxing and two or three additional horizontal folds). The first line of the inscription "For D Hosack" is slightly shaved, overall toning and scattered foxing, very good. A nice association copy between two renowned naturalists: Joseph Banks was elected to the Royal Society at age 23 and made his name in 1766 by publishing the first Linnean descriptions of the plants and animals of Newfoundland and Labrador. He won international acclaim for his participation in Captain James Cook's first voyage on HMS *Endeavour* (1768-71). David Hosack was a friend to and physician of Alexander Hamilton, who served as the attending physician at the Burr-Hamilton duel in 1804. In a tragic coincidence, Hosack had also administered medical aid to Hamilton's son Philip, three year earlier when he also died in a duel. Hosack would later found the first botanical garden in the United States, Elgin Botanic Garden, which is now the site of Rockefeller Center. An historically important association copy, from the library of one of America's most celebrated botanist, called by contemporary Europeans "the Sir Joseph Banks of America.".

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. First Edition/Unique Edition. First Edition/Unique Edition. Hardcover. Vol. I: 100 lithograph plates: title page + 99 of costumes, all hand-colored. Vol. II: 100 plates #101-200. Vol. III: 100 plates #201-300. Vol. IV: 80 plates #301-380. Manuscript Sketchbook of Hypolyte Lecomte (1820). Ink over pencil sketches for Costumes Civils et Militaire de la Monarchie Francaise; 268 drawings. Small quarto in laid paper, to plate "266" of above, then different sketches. Hippolyte Lecomte (1781-1857), a French painter trained under renowned historical painter Pierre-Adrien Swebach. Lecomte became known for his large-scale historical paintings, often depicting scenes from Napoleonic France and the Spanish War of Independence and his works are praised for their accuracy, dramatic composition, and attention to detail. Lecomte's work continues to be exhibited in museums like the Palace of Versailles, the National Gallery of Art, and the Rijksmuseum. His mastery of historical narratives [and his contributions to ballet design] have ensured his place in French artistic history. Light shelf/edge wear, spines toned, wear to head and tail, light rubbing at hinges, thumb creases to some plates, light toning/soiling, thin laid paper endpapers "Mrs. Jay Bird" bookplate, else tight, bright and unmarred; vellum binding shows closed split, light toning, old repair at front hinge with buckram under the vellum, fore-edge toned, last page before fly soiled (likely outer wrapper of a much used sketchbook prior to binding), else tight, bright and unmarred. Quarterbound, red leather spine, marbled boards, gilt lettering, frontispiece. fo/small 8vo. np. Illus. (hand-colored plates).

"I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose." A Great Detective's Debut, or The Case of The Missing Rare Book DOYLE, Arthur Conan. A Study in Scarlet. London: Ward, Lock and Co., 1888 [i.e. March 1889]. First edition in book form of the first Sherlock Holmes story (preceded only by the story's appearance in Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887). Second impression with mis-spelling "youuger" for younger in the second paragraph of the publishers' preface. Octavo (7 1/4 x 4 3/4 inches; 185 x 121 mm.). [iii] title; [iv] blank; [v] publisher's preface (with paragraph 2, line 3: youuger); [vi] blank; [vii] contents; [viii] blank [1]- [169]; [170] blank; advertisements; [171- 182] pp. With six line drawings within the text by Charles Doyle, the author's father, on pp. 32, 57, 64, 98, 124, 158. The title-page has been very neatly repaired at the edges and pp. 75-78 with very slight fore marginal loss not affecting text. Bound without the leaf of advertisements preceding the title-page and the last leaf of advertisements at the end (pp. 183/4). Handsomely rebound in late nineteenth century style full red polished calf, covers double-ruled in gilt, spine with five raised bands decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt decorated board edges and turn-ins, cockerel endpapers, all edges uncut. A fine uncut copy with all but two of the advertisement leaves present. The first Sherlock Holmes story and the author's first published work. One of the select band of fabled rarities and therefore a keystone book for any collector of either Detective Fiction, Modern Literature or indeed for any collector of high spots. It requires the ingenuity of a Holmes to find an example of this book. A Study in Scarlet was written during March and April of 1886. It was accepted finally by Ward Lock in November 1886, after having been rejected by James Payn, the Editor of the Cornhill Magazine, Arrowsmith's, who received it in May and returned it unread in July and then Warne's who turned it down immediately. Ward Lock proposed to publish the story in their magazine, "Beeton's Christmas Annual" for 1887, but they drove a very hard bargain and forced the young doctor to sell his entire interest in the story for £25.00. They definitely had a very good deal for the â Beetons' issue was sold out in two weeks and Ward Lock then decided to issue A Study in Scarlet in a more permanent book form with illustrations. This, the actual first edition in book form appeared in July of 1888. The second impression, as offered here was issued in March of 1889 at one shilling. It cannot have surprised Ward Lock that Doyle refused any further dealings with them, and he wrote to Blackwood's early in 1888 of the success of his first novel: â Messrs. Ward, Lock & Co. are now busy bringing it out in a more permanent form with new type, illustrations, & everything.' The illustrations were to be by Charles Doyle, the author's father, who was by then confined to an asylum on account of his epilepsy and alcoholism. The six frail drawings bear no relation to later conceptions of the subject but are of interest none the less. The size of the first edition in 1888 (both first and second impressions) is not known but the story was not published again until the first American edition by J.B. Lippincott Company in 1890. The second issue here offered appears to be as scarce as the first issue with just a handful of copies of either issue in institutions worldwide. A Study in Scarlet. The story marks the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who would become the most famous detective duo in popular fiction. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes, a consulting detective, to his friend and chronicler Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it." The story, and its main characters, attracted little public interest when it first appeared. Only 11 complete copies of the magazine in which the story first appeared, Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887, are known to exist now and they have considerable value. Although Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories featuring Holmes, A Study in Scarlet is one of only four full-length novels in the original canon. The novel was followed by The Sign of the Four, published in 1890. A Study in Scarlet was the first work of detective fiction to incorporate the magnifying glass as an investigative tool. Green and Gibson A1a.i.; De Waal 417.

Pp. 7, [1], 134, 124, 32, 16, 38, 124, [1]. 22,5x15 cm. Contemporary quarter calf, cloth sides, a little surface wear, later endpapers, preserving the original printed wrappers ('Sovremennik 1852 No. IX, sentiabr'), guarded in the gutter. Without the final leaf from the gathering 9½ (pp. 135-6 from the second sequence, a translation of Byron's 'On this day I complete my thirty-sixth year' by Nikolai Gerbel); small spotted stain to pp. 21-22, with resultant loss of a few letters (sense recoverable), a similar brown stain to pp. 35-55 (again, the paper slightly thin, but no loss), occasional spotting, lower corner of p. 129 repaired (just touching a couple of letters). 'Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was twenty-three and convalescing in Tiflis after mercury treatment for ''the venereal sickness'' when he completed the first part of Childhood, which appeared in a Petersburg monthly in September 1852 [pp. 1-104 in the second sequence here], above the initials L. N. It created an immediate sensation, one reviewer writing: ''If this is the first production of L. N. Russian literature must be congratulated on the appearance of a new and remarkable talent''. It was Tolstoy's first published work and first attempt at fiction. 'The original plan comprised a great novel (with the general title of 'Four Epochs of Growth') founded - but only founded - on the reminiscences and traditions of his family, so that Tolstoy was displeased when the magazine altered his Childhood to The History of My Childhood. ''The alteration is especially disagreeable,'' he complained to the editor, ''because, as I wrote to you, I meant 'Childhood' to form the first part of a novel.'' (Rosemary Edmonds, preface to her translation, 1961). That novel, 'Detstvo i otrochestvo' (i.e. Childhood and Boyhood), was published in 1856. This issue of 'Sovremennik' contains another first: the first Russian translation of anything by Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapters I-IX of 'The House of the Seven Gables' (Boston, 1851; the third sequence here, pp. 124), with a short introduction by the editor and its own title-page: 'Dom o semi shpiliakh. Roman Natanielia Gotorna. Sanktpeterburg v tipografii Eduarda Pratsa 1852'. The National Library of Russia lists the novel separately (pp. 256), but we were unable to locate a copy in the West. Libman. 2059.