Some minor foxing; spine reinforced at tips, a handsome copy.
Illustrations by Frederick Gilbert.
£1,950
or, the Modern Prometheus
London, John Dicks, 1884.
In Dicks’ English Library of Standard Works, vol.III. 4to. Contemporary half straight-grain morocco lettered and ruled in gilt to spine.
An uncommon serialised edition of Shelley’s classic of sci-fi horror; the volume also contains Percy Bysshe’s Zastrozzi, both illustrated by the well-known illustrator Frederick Gilbert.
Out of stock
Some minor foxing; spine reinforced at tips, a handsome copy.
Illustrations by Frederick Gilbert.
London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1956.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 12s6d.
An intriguing combination of authors: "Each of the three 'tales of imagination' in this book is by a master of the art, and there is enough incident and invention in each of them to surpass most full-length novels." (jacket blurb). The Peake tale Boy in Darkness features Titus, from the Gormenghast books.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, John Hamilton, 1936.
First edition. 8vo. Original green cloth. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A rare dust-jacket. One of this author's less common and more interesting titles, a Mad Scientist's attempts to block off the sun's rays and cause the end of the world. Produced for Hamilton's Sundial Mystery Library series.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Harrap, 1937,
First edition. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
Brunngraber was a German industrial designer and author. In Radium he speculates about near-contemporary cornering of the radium market causing problems in a hospital using it as a medicine cure cancer.
Rare in jacket. An important sci-fi title.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Sampson Low, 1878.
First UK edition. Publisher's catalogue at end. 8vo. Original brown cloth decorated in gilt & black.
The first edition in English of Verne's sci-fi classic of a comet's collision with the earth which bears away part of the planet, and its inhabitants. This translation alters the text considerably with additions and emendations, paraphrases dialogue, and rearranges material, although the general thread of the story is followed. The translation was made from the serial version of the novel, published January to December 1877.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Translated by Lawrence Hyde.
London, Bles, 1925.
First UK edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in red. Dust-jacket, correctly priced 7/6.
A great first edition in English of Čapek's novel about a secret explosive formulation and the trouble it causes, not least for its inventor, the chemist Prokop: "a rich and wildly imagined work, unusual in its almost orgiastic baroque exploration of power, sexuality, and guilt." (Bleiler). The wonderful art deco jacket artwork sets the mood perfectly! The original Czech edition was published the previous year.