Weird & Supernatural
or, the Wonderful and Strange Relation of the Life and Adventures of Nathan Souldrop
London, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1892.
First edition. 8vo. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt.
A tale of black magic and witchcraft in early 18th-century Northamptonshire, loosely based on the story of Elinor Shaw, the last person burnt in England for the practice of witchcraft. The narrator is the victim of mesmerism and hallucinatory horrors, one of which is the titular blue dragon that materialises in the air. Rare.
Weird & Supernatural
A Weird Legend
London, W.J. Sinkins, 1893.
First edition. Inscribed by C.H. Ross. 8vo. Floral endpapers. Original green cloth stamped in red.
A very good example of this rare first edition, a weird, Hugoesque tale about a wild child called Terra who is unleashed from the bowels of the earth to wreak havoc on the fortunes of Lord Netherdale and his family with her wicked & wanton ways. Inspired by the story of Mademoiselle Leblanc, the mysterious savage of Soigny, near Chalons, who died in Paris in 1780, it is probable that this work is also leveraging the pervading fin-de-siècle anxiety about the emerging 'new woman'.
This copy is inscribed by one of the authors, C.H. Ross, on the half-title, 'Miss Emily Burgess, with Charles Ross's kind regards, Feb 19th 1905.'