![Harold Owen, Loyalty, first edition, inscribed compliments slip from the author, [1918]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/87143-300x300.jpg)
Modern Literature
a play in four acts
London, Hodder & Stoughton, [1918].
First edition, first impression. With note inscribed 'with the author's compliments'. 8vo. Original blue cloth with printed title label to spine and upper cover.
A pro-war dramatic work aimed at countering pacifism during World War I. The play debuted in November 1917 and was notably revived in July 1918 by royal request, with C. Aubrey Smith in the cast.
!['Edward Omen', Nutopia, first edition, [1908]](https://lycanthiabooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/87142-300x300.jpg)
Modern Literature
or Nineteen-Twenty-One
London, Henry J. Drake, [1908].
First edition. 8vo. Original red cloth lettered and blocked in black.
Nutopia falls into a somewhat niche category of early feminist utopian fiction - the idea being a utopian island society governed by women. While it hasn't attracted wide scholarly attention, it earned a brief mention in utopian studies contexts because of its subject matter.
Detective Fiction
London, Macdonald, 1965.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 15s. net.
A perplexing case for Ludovic Travers, humorously named for its bizarre reference to a 'Jumbo Sandwich'.
Detective Fiction
London, Macdonald, 1962.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 12s.6d.
Travers juggles three intertwined investigations involving a con-man, blackmail, and a photographer's aunt.
Modern Literature
London, Allan Wingate, 1952.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original boards. Dust-jacket, priced 11s.6d.
Set in Trinidad, this social novel draws on Selvon's lived experience as a Trinidadian-born West Indian writer, exploring love and community in a Caribbean context.
Modern Literature
London, John Lane The Bodley Head, 1936.
First UK edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 2/6.
A gentle domestic novel centred on newlyweds from very different social backgrounds grappling with the challenges of early marriage and class discord. The title, bearing the heroine's name, indicates a character-driven story of personal growth and social navigation.
Victorian Literature
A Tale of the Neutral Ground
London, Colburn and Bentley, 1831.
First UK illustrated edition. 8vo. Contemporary half calf with marbled boards, spine with leather title label and decorations in gilt and blind.
A formative American historical novel set during the Revolutionary War, it follows Harvey Birch, a humble peddler who serves as a covert agent for the Colonial army behind enemy lines. First published in the UK in 1821.
Victorian Literature
or The Skimmer of the Seas
London, Richard Bentley, 1834.
First UK illustrated edition. 8vo. Contemporary half calf with marbled boards, spine with leather title label and decorations in gilt and blind.
A sea-faring romance and political allegory set in early New York's pirate-infested waters. It follows altamira as the vessel and her crew, embroiled in piracy and class conflict.
Modern Literature
London, Heinemann, 1935.
First edition, first impression. 8vo. Original cloth. Dust-jacket, priced 7/6.
A psychological-romance novel steeped in mysticism and allegory, it tracks the enigmatic Ivor Trent as he disrupts and reflects the "disillusion…expectation…something massive was needed…" state of 1930s Britain.