Wells (H.G.) The Wonderful Visit
£150
London, J.M. Dent, 1895.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Title printed in red & black. Original red gilt-pictorial cloth.
A vicar in deepest Sussex, hearing reports of a strange great bird, does what an English naturalist-clergyman must and shoots it; it proves to be an angel, whom he then has to nurse, house, and explain to the parish. What follows is satire of the gentlest lethality: the angel’s baffled encounters with property, class, respectability and the vicar’s housekeeper indicting village England far more efficiently than thunder could. Wells reportedly took the germ from Ruskin’s remark that if an angel appeared in England someone would shoot it.
In stock
Minor marking to early pages; spine darkened and slightly mottled, some minor rubbing to extremities.
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