Shiel (M.P.) Prince Zaleski
£650
London & Boston, John Lane; Roberts Bros,, 1895.
First edition. 8vo. Original purple decorative cloth.
One of the most well-known and collectable of Lane’s important ‘Keynotes’ series, this being the seventh in the series, and the first of two appearances therein for the “King of Redonda” (the other being his influential work Shapes in the Fire, number XXIX). Aubrey Beardsley provided the title-page/cover designs and most if not all of the monogram key devices for the series up until vol.XXIII.
Prince Zaleski was Shiel’s first published work, drawing inspiration in part from the detective tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and comprising three mysteries: “The Race of Orven”, “The Stone of the Edmundsbury Monks”, and “The S.S.”, each to be solved by the eponymous Zaleski, an eccentric Russian nobleman living in exile in a derelict Welsh abbey.
In stock
Some light toning to margins of text block; cloth spine faded, some other lesser fading to upper edges and near spine, otherwise good.
Title-page/upper cover design by Aubrey Beardsley, with key monogram device probably also by Beardsley.
Queen’s Quorum 19.
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