Fiction

Emile Zola – Nana

A classic from the Modern Library collection published in the 1950′s and in very good condition.

Nana was banned in England on publication in 1888 for supposed obscenity. Zola the greatest influence on the school of “realistic” writing here demonstrated to perfection.

Obscenity surely not

$30.00

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A Sort of Life – Graham Greene – First Edition 1971

Published by the Bodley Head, London a first edition 1971 in very good condition.

Autobiography of Greene’s earlier years. He was almost permanently drunk during his final year at Oxford and seems quite proud of it … and he touches on a bit of spying and some writing success and failure and borrowing money from his mother. First Edition.

A sort of Life – we could all aspire to

$30.00

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Mirango the Man-Eater – C. Dudley Lampen – First Edition 1899

Title continues …A Tale of Central Africa being The Narrative of George Pryce traveller and exile, first writ down Anno Domini 1706 , and now retold …

An unusual book never mind the confronting title. First edition 1899 in pretty good condition considering. The author C. Dudley Lampen (1859-1943) is a recognised early Sci-fi writer and had previously published “The Queen of the Extinct Volcano”.

Mirango is about Africa and the finding of a society of lost ancient Egyptians. Recognised in a number of fantasy bibliographies including – A Spectrum of Fantasy 132; Bleiler 118 and Reginald 8571.

Octavo, 242 pages plus advertisements. Published curiously by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London. With three half tone plates and other decorative devices and the stunning pictorial book cover.

Lost Race Classic from 1899 …..

$70.00

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Harold Effermere – A Story of the Queensland Bush – Michael Costello – First Edition 1897

Published by Swan Sonnenschien, London a first edition 1897. Octavo 309 pages in original green cloth covered binding with embossed design to front and git titling to spine. Showing some signs of age but still a very good copy of a rare work.

A superb and rare late 19thC novel based in the Queensland bush – country horse race rigging at its best. A great Australian yarn.

The author Michael Costello was the eldest son of pioneer, pastoralist and explorer John Costello. As a young lad the author often accompanied his dad on risky expeditions driving stock great distances in the bush in difficult conditions. Michael’s biography on his father published much later c1930 is one of our favourite pioneer accounts, almost impossible to find.

Whilst we find the dodgy horse racing elements the most amusing aspect of “Harold Effermere” we also learn to put your swag on the western side of a bush to avoid the morning sun and never to make your tea in the beef billy unless you want tea soup!

Early and rare Queensland Bush Story from a True Blue Bush Boy.

$90.00

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The Strand Magazine – with an Arthur Conan Doyle First Publication – 1898

A complete volume of the Strand Magazine being January to June 1898 in very good condition in the original green leather binding with elaborate gilt design and titling to spine.

As would be expected many interesting period articles, stories and the likes .. one on Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) by Beatrice Hatch is rather special.

The “piece that cannot be resisted” is a first publication of the short story by Arthur Conan Doyle … “The Story of the Beetle-Hunter” which was later published in a collection of short stories “Round the Fire” in 1908. The story, which runs to ten pages, contains eight illustrations by Archibald S Hattrick (1864-1950).

Conan Doyle First and More in Very Good Condition.

$140.00

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Sartor Resartus – Thomas Carlyle – Bickers & Sons of Leicester Full Leather Binding

Thomas Carlyle’s first and possibly most important novel originally published in 1836 previously serialised in Fraser’s Magazine.

This edition by Chaman and Hall 1901 and in a full red polished calf binding by the famous bookbinders Bickers & Sons of Leicester. Carries the shield of posh girl’s school “Sandecotes” embossed in gilt to the front cover, a note of prize gift. The marbled end-papers are to die for, rolled gilt to board edges etc bar a foxing mark here and there a very nice copy.

Sartor Resartus means “the tailor re-tailored”. The novel purports to be on the thoughts and early life of a German philosopher Diognes Teufelsdrockh (God-born devil-dung). The structure of the book is very unusual, influences are thought to be Swift “a Tale of a Tub” and Sterne “Tristram Shandy”. For the time, it was a new kind of book being both factual and fictional, serious and satirical, speculative and historical. An unnamed Editor is struck with admiration but also confounded by Teufelsdrockh’s outlandish philosophy. A most enigmatic book which influenced many writers to come including Joyce on whose “Finnegan’s Wake” is surely modelled.

Controversial testing Sartor Resartus dressed by Bickers & Sons in red calf.

$80.00

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Emile Zola – Nana

A Sort of Life – Graham Greene – First Edition 1971

Mirango the Man-Eater – C. Dudley Lampen – First Edition 1899

Harold Effermere – A Story of the Queensland Bush – Michael Costello – First Edition 1897

The Strand Magazine – with an Arthur Conan Doyle First Publication – 1898

Sartor Resartus – Thomas Carlyle – Bickers & Sons of Leicester Full Leather Binding

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