Sci-Fi & Fantasy
or, Fragments from the star city of Montalluyah
London, Samuel Tinsley, 1873.
First edition. 8vo. Original brown cloth ruled in black and lettered in gilt.
An intriguing work of speculative fiction, set in the city and planet of Montalluyah, strongly hinted to be Mars, wherein resides a highly civilised society whose inhabitants grapple with the same concerns as Victorian progressives: public health, education, crime prevention, the art of government. The twist is that they've largely solved them, principally through electricity, which here serves as a universal agent for everything from anaesthesia to disease detection. Physicians are the aristocracy; there are no poor; microscopy and breath analysis replace the doctor's bag. The chapters on education and madness are perhaps the most compelling, particularly the counterintuitive finding that mental illness originates not in overworked regions of the brain but in those left dormant. The book sits slightly awkwardly between imaginative fiction and social satire, akin in ambition to Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race and Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
and other poems
London, Macmillan, December 1933.
First edition, second impression. 8vo. Original blind-tooled sage cloth decorated in gilt to spine. Dust-jacket, priced 6/-.
An excellent example of the second impression of this collection by Yeats, the title poem from which had originally been published in 1929 by Fountain Press in a signed limited edition.
Detective Fiction
London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1947.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Contemporary library cloth with ex-libris stamp to upper cover. Dust-jacket, priced 8/6.
Bowers' fifth & final novel, concerns a series of apparent suicides in a quiet English village and the murder of a local business proprietress, investigated by Detective Inspector Raikes.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Faber & Faber, 1931.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7s6d.
An uncommon work of magical realism, featuring same-sex attraction. Uncle Stephen is the first volume in the Tom Barber Trilogy. Bleiler listed.
Non-Fiction
London, Macmillan, 1933.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, publisher's price label of 5s net to upper panel and spine.
George Saintsbury (1845-1933) was one of the most prolific and influential literary critics of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods, holding the chair of English Literature at Edinburgh from 1895 to 1915.
London, Hobart Manufacturing Co., June 1935.
4to. Original pictorial wrappers. Housed in custom cloth case with colour illustration and title label to upper cover and 2 inset illustrations to lower.
A special souvenir issue relating to the French Line's North Atlantic steamship Normandie.
Detective Fiction
Hopley (George, pseud. Cornell Woolrich) Night Has a Thousand Eyes
New York & Toronto, Farrar & Rinehart, 1945.
First edition, first printing. 8vo. Original blue cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50. Housed in later drop-back cloth box (somewhat misleadingly stating 'signed', which the book is not).
The novel centres on a con man haunted by a genuine clairvoyant ability - an unusual blend of noir and the supernatural. Cornell Woolrich (1903-68), who also wrote as William Irish, is a foundational figure of noir fiction whose work inspired numerous films including Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). First edition copies in dust jacket are scarce.
Horror & Gothic
London, Heinemann, 1927.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6. Housed in later drop-back cloth box (somewhat misleadingly stating 'signed', which the book is not).
Priestley's only foray into horror, rare in the dust-jacket. Benighted was adapted into the classic James Whale film The Old Dark House (1932), and has more recently been adapted for the stage.
A Survey of Evidence
London, Faber & Faber, 1939.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Sir Ernest Bennett (1868–1947) was a British Liberal MP and psychical researcher who compiled this survey of reported apparitions and hauntings as an evidential study.
Detective Fiction
London, Geoffrey Bles, 1939.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
An uncommon bibliomystery by this British detective fiction writer of the Golden Age, who authored some thirty mystery novels, many featuring Detective Inspector William Austen.
American Literature
A true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
London, Hamish Hamilton, 1966.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
Considered by many to be the prototypical true crime novel, In Cold Blood details the 1959 Clutter family murders in the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas; Capote learned of the quadruple murder before the killers were captured, and spent six years working on the book, which he described as a "non-fiction novel."
n.p., G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1937.
First edition, first printed. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.50.
A work adapted from the diary of a Scots private during World War I: 'It ends as it began with the sight of the long road unrolling from the opened end of a moving car; first a lorry and last an ambulance.' (jacket blurb)
Weird & Supernatural
drawn from various trials...edited by the Rev. Montague Summers
n.p., John Rodker, 1929.
One of 1275 copies. 8vo. Title-page printed in red & black, rubricated initials. Original boards with paper-covered covers. Dust-jacket, priced 25/-.
First published in 1590, An Examen of Witches describes the witch trials conducted by Boguet and includes a chapter on the procedure necessary to a judge in trials for witchcraft. It is one of a group of important witchcraft texts published by John Rodker (who also issued Summers's translation of the Malleus Maleficarum), a publisher often associated with modernist works & authors.
Horror & Gothic
London, B.T. Batsford, 1956.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 21s.
A non-fiction survey of British haunted houses with illustrations by Felix Kelly, whose atmospheric paintings of country houses and gothic interiors were widely admired.
American Literature
London, Picador, 1985.
First UK hardback edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
The eighth novel by Underworld author Don DeLillo; widely considered DeLillo's breakout work, it won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction, was included in Time's List of the 100 Best Novels and is generally regarded as a cornerstone example of postmodern literature.
Modern Literature
London, Sampson Low, Marston, [1931].
First edition, early impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 5/-.
Book and wrapper are both early issues based on titles listed on half-title. A story of the films and of the stunt girl whose life is full of thrilling adventures, told in Mr. Starr's entertaining manner.
A new edition including many pieces now first published, and notices of his life and work by Edmund Blunden
London, Chatto & Windus, 1931.
First edition thus, first impression. 8vo. Original purple cloth.
The 1931 Blunden edition adds nineteen poems to the first edition of 1920 edited by Siegfried Sassoon, and represents the second major collected edition of Owen's work.
American Literature
London, Michael Joseph, 1964.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
A first UK edition of American writer & civil rights activist James Baldwin's first non-fiction book, first published in the US in 1955. The ten essays collected here include Baldwin's critiques of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Richard Wright's Native Son, alongside reflections on his decade living in Paris.
Weird & Supernatural
A Study of Master Matthew Hopkins commonly call'd Witch Finder Generall...together with a Reprint of The Discovery of Witches from the rare original of 1647
London, at The Cayme Press, 1928.
First edition. Small 4to. Original wrappers with printed title label to upper cover.
Summers' introductory narration on Matthew Hopkins's The Discovery of Witches, an essay by the notorious seventeenth-century witch hunter who was the driving force behind the execution of more than a hundred alleged witches in the 1640s.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
London, Orbit/Macdonald, 1990.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
An attractive first edition of the third in Banks' 'Culture' series, the first draft of which was written in 1974, preceding the author's debut novel The Wasp Factory by a decade.
Sexuality & Erotica
London, Secker & Warburg, 1958.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, price-clipped.
Largely autobiographical, Peyrefitte's famous work on adolescence deals with an intimate relationship between two boys at a Roman Catholic boarding school and how it is destroyed by a priest's will to protect them from homosexuality. An uncommon title, in attractive Ayrton jacket.
Children's Books
London, Oxford University Press; Humphrey Milford, 1937.
First edition. 8vo. Original dark blue cloth with gilt stamp to upper cover and stamped in black to spine. Third issue (1942) dust-jacket, price-clipped.
First serialised in twelve parts as 'Biggles' Treasure Island' in The Modern Boy between June and September 1937, the plot sends Biggles, Algy and Ginger to the Caribbean in search of a cursed doubloon and a long-lost pirate hoard.
Weird & Supernatural
Twenty-One Tales London, Percival Marshall, [1951].First edition, first impression. Inscribed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.Rare collection of weird tales by Irish author Barker, perhaps best known for his ghost story 'Whessoe'. Inscribed by him to the front free endpaper.
Weird & Supernatural
London, Arthur Barker, 1934.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Second issue dust-jacket, priced 3/6.
A dark Gothic novel set on a Cornish farm, Raven's Brood centres on old John Pentreath's fear of God and love of the flesh & drink - a far cry from the work usually associated with the author of the Mapp & Lucia series. Rare in the jacket.
American Literature
A short history
New York [London], Alfred A. Knopf, 1929.
First UK edition, on US sheets. 8vo. Original cloth-backed patterned boards. Dust-jacket, priced 10s6d.
A satirical overview of American history from "discovery" to the present, featuring explanatory diagrams and caricatures by the author. The book did not sell well, seemingly a contributing factor to the author & illustrator's suicide in 1931.
Horror & Gothic
London, George Routledge, 1914.
Fifth impression. 8vo. Advertisement for The Lair of the White Worm. Original red cloth decorated in black.
A collection of nine supernatural short stories by Bram Stoker, published posthumously in 1914 by George Routledge & Sons at the behest of his widow Florence Balcombe. The title story is widely believed to be the deleted opening chapter of Dracula (1897): Florence Stoker writes in her preface that it was "originally excised owing to the length of the book."
American Literature
London, Andre Deutsch, 1969.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
The first UK edition of Didion's celebrated first collection of essays, mostly describing her experiences in California during the 1960s.
American Literature
Around the world in 100 days...foreword by Lowell Thomas
New York & London, D. Appleton-Century Company, 1935.
First edition, first printing. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced $2.00 with code 3289**** to foot of inside front flap.
Pierrot was born in Chicago in 1898, but grew up in Washington state, and came to Detroit to edit The American Boy magazine; he went on to found the World Adventure Series at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Modern Literature
London, Faber & Faber, 1989.
First edition, first impression. Signed by the author on title-page. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
The story of an English butler who reflects on his years of service and a past relationship with the housekeeper, Miss Kenton. The novel was awarded the Booker Prize in 1989 and was adapted into a critically acclaimed film in 1993, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.
Non-Fiction
London, Lutterworth Press, 1957.
First edition, first impression. Signed by the author on title-page. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
The companion book to Attenborough's BBC television series of the same name, Zoo Quest for a Dragon records his expedition to Indonesia in search of Komodo dragons. The 'Zoo Quest' series was the most popular wildlife programme of its time in Britain, and established Attenborough's career as a nature documentary presenter.
Modern Literature
London, Secker & Warburg, 1973.
First edition, first impression. Signed presentation copy from the author. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket.
The author's second satirical novel, warmly inscribed by him to Peter Giddy, referencing the latter's "Dornford Yates club".
American Literature
London, Leonard Parsons, 1925.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Cut signature of author to title-page, with cut signature of the actor Leslie Banks to another page. Original cloth. Dust-jacket.
The first UK of this short story collection by US author & journalist Connell, with his cut signature affixed to the title-page. The collection includes his most well-known story, 'The Most Dangerous Game', to the first page of which someone has affixed the cut signature of the actor Leslie Banks, who starred in the 1932 RKO film adaptation.
![Alternative view of Austen (Jane) [Works].](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/88141_2-300x300.jpg)
Pre-Victorian Literature
4 vols, comprising: Pride & Prejudice, 1910; Mansfield Park, 1926; Emma, 1915; Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, 1921
London, Macmillan, 1910-26.
Illustrated editions. 4 vols. 8vo. Original cloth, spines gilt.
An attractive group of Austen's works, just missing Sense & Sensibility, with the illustrations by Hugh Thomson and Charles E. Brock, both highly regarded illustrators from the Golden Age.
Weird & Supernatural
or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers
London, T.C. Newby, 1849.
[Second edition]. 8vo. Modern cloth.
One of two anthologies of supposedly true ghost stories by Crowe, originally published the previous year and considered one of the first serious collections of this sort. Rare.
Antiquarian
or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams
London, for W. Simpkin & R. Marshal, 1816.
Fourth edition. 3 vols. 8vo. Half-titles. Contemporary calf, gilt.
Written as a call to end the abuse of power by what Godwin saw as a tyrannical government. Intended as a popularisation of the ideas presented in his 1793 treatise Political Justice, Godwin uses Caleb Williams to show how legal and other institutions can and do destroy individuals, even when the people the justice system touches are innocent of any crime.