20th Century Classics

World Famous Books in Outline [Simply the Best] – Odhams – First Edition 1948

Some readers are worried they will not get through all the books they have to read … this understandably can be quite stressful.

Regarding the great novels, a course in speed reading may help, but this produces its own form of anxiety … am I really giving the book justice etc? Publisher Odhams, London came up with this precis of the best novels in 1948 … there are other books of this type but none as good as Odhams.

Published in 1948, octavo, 512 pages, with illustrations of some quality and uniform style which helps you along. Very good condition albeit with a solid chip in the dust jacket at spine ends.

All up 35 books covered, so you can do the maths. Classics include … Pride and Prejudice; Lorna Doone; Jane Eyre; Don Quixote; the Brothers Karamazov; Madame Bovary; Tess; Notre Dame; Vanity Fair; War and Peace; Faust etc … And, some non-fiction … On the Origin of Species for example

Get ahead of the game … A good way in and a tease for the full work

$30.00

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Birds, Beasts and Flowers – D.H. Lawrence

A really nice presentation of D.H. Lawrence’s collection of poems by the thoughtful “Black Sparrow Press” of Santa Rosa, published in 2001.

Large octavo, 213 pages, printed on superior acid free paper. Unusual cloth covered boards with artwork from the first edition pasted on, paper labels to spine, all add a craft feel to the production which we love.

On publishing these poems D.H. Lawrence had soon to remove a not insubstantial number of lines considered indecent in 1923. Here they are restored … the publishers state along with a few minor emendations of typographical errors.

D.H.L. Nicely done and restored to all its Glory.

$40.00

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Agatha Christie – Complete Set of the Collected Edition by Hamlyn – 24 Volumes – 72 Novels.

Published by Hamlyn, London various dates as issued in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Uniform octavo, over 12,000 pages. Nicely bound in decorated black cloth covered boards with gilt adornment and titles, super headbands, all top edges stained red as required. Each covered in the original “Crime Themed” dust jackets of the period .. now all protected in removeable Brodart. Very good condition, the tiniest bit of age to a couple, all clean as a whistle internally … as fine a set as you could find.

To be read over a lifetime … maybe twice. Comprising …

1. 4:50 From Paddington; Lord Edgware Dies; Murder in Mesopotamia;
2. Sparkling Cyanide; The Secret of Chimney; Five Little Pigs;
3. A Caribbean Mystery; Taken at the Flood; The Seven Dials Mystery;
4. Evil under the Sun; Death Comes as the End; The Sittaford Mystery;
5. Ordeal by Innocence; One, Two, Buckle my Shoe; The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding;
6. Partners in Crime; At Bertram s Hotel; The Hound of Death;
7. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; They Do It With Mirrors; Mrs. McGinty s Dead;
8. The Clocks; Third Girl; Murder in the Mews;
9. Halloween Party; Passenger to Frankfurt; The Thirteen Problems;
10. The Hollow; The Moving Finger; Three Act Tragedy;
11. The Mysterious Affair at Styles; Ten Little Ni*****s; Dumb Witness;
12. Appointment with Death; Crooked House; Sad Cypress;
13. The Pale Horse; The Big Four; The Secret Adversary;
14. Cat Among the Pigeons; The Labours of Hercules; Hickory Dickory Dock;
15. Nemesis; Parker Pyne Investigates; Poirot Investigates;
16. Death on the Nile; Towards Zero; After the Funeral;
17. By the Pricking of My Thumbs; The Mysterious Mr. Quin; Endless Night;
18. Peril at End House; The Body in the Library; Hercule Poirot’s Christmas;
19. Murder is Easy; Dead Man s Folly; The Man in the Brown Suit;
20. The Mirror Crack d from Side to Side; They Came to Baghdad; The ABC Murders;
21. Murder on the Orient Express; Death in the Clouds; Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?;
22. The Mystery of the Blue Train; The Listerdale Mystery; The Murder at the Vicarage;
23. The Murder on the Links; A Pocket Full of Rye; Destination Unknown;
24. Cards on the Table; N or M; A Murder is Announced.

Total weight packed is approaching 20 kgs so we will have to quote postage to any buyers location. We always pack well and find the best mailing arrangement for all our customers.

Agatha Christie simply the best complete set.

$390.00

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Richer than All His Tribe – Nicholas Monsarrat – First Edition 1968

A fine copy of the first edition published by Cassell, London in 1968. Octavo, 369 pages, map of The Island of Pharamaul. A really fresh copy.

Despite fame from “the Cruel Sea” it is widely accepted that amongst his large body of work The Tribe That Lost its Head (published 1956) and this later development of the themes therein Richer Than All His Tribe were his best works.

Monsarrat had spent some time in South Africa as a diplomat and he draws on his experience to write about the obscure colonial island of Pharamual set in the South Atlantic some 500 miles from the South West Coast of Africa. It all starts with Independence Day …

Monsarrat back at Pharamaul.

$30.00

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Captain Caution – Kenneth Roberts – First UK Edition 1949

First UK edition published by Collins, London in 1949.

American historical adventure writer Roberts highly regarded at the time compared, by some, with Dumas and Victor Hugo … high praise indeed.

Octavo, 255 pages with the super period dust jacket. A fine copy the condition surprising considering age and time of printing.

In the main concerning the American War of Independence. Our hero Captain Marvin stocks it up the British but not without a period of imprisonment in the hulks … escapes and takes a prize in true Hornblower fashion. He escapes to France and is victorious in a thrilling naval battle off Madeira.

Captain Caution is not so Cautious.

$30.00

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The Chiffon Scarf – Mignon Eberhart – First Edition 1940.

1940 First Edition published by The Sun Dial Press, New York. Octavo, 301 pages, some dust jacket chips otherwise a really good copy of a hard to come by period mystery.

More murders than Midsummer. A triangular love affair complicates a situation rife with horror! A test flight to check the performance of a new engines leaves two dead. With many a weapons about but what about “The Chiffon Scarf”?

Nebraska born Mignon Eberhardt (1899-1996) was probably America’s most successful female mystery writer during her lifetime and she wrote from the 1920’s into the 1980’s. Winner of many awards her novels compared with Agatha Christie in terms pf plot, characterisation and dramatic effect …

1940 First Edition – Sensational Mystery

$50.00

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World Famous Books in Outline [Simply the Best] – Odhams – First Edition 1948

Birds, Beasts and Flowers – D.H. Lawrence

Agatha Christie – Complete Set of the Collected Edition by Hamlyn – 24 Volumes – 72 Novels.

Richer than All His Tribe – Nicholas Monsarrat – First Edition 1968

Captain Caution – Kenneth Roberts – First UK Edition 1949

The Chiffon Scarf – Mignon Eberhart – First Edition 1940.

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