{"title":"19th Century Literature","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"le-fanu-j-s-the-wyvern-mystery-a-novel-1889-4554","title":"The Wyvern Mystery. A Novel.","description":"\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Ward and Downey.  . 1889.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eFrom the Libraries of Barry Humphries and Montague Summers.  \u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst single volume edition. 8vo. 191x125mm. pp. vii [ibl], 351 [1]. Six engraved plates by Brinsley Sheridan Le Fanu. Publisher's decorated cloth. Slight bumping and rubbing to corners and to head and foot of spine which is a little rubbed and darkened. Hinges weak and some minor marking but otherwise a very good copy of the first single volume edition of the novel initially issued in three volumes in 1869. The front pastedown has the striking St Jerome bookplate of Alphonsus Montague Summers designed by Eric Gill, together with the bookplate of the comedian Barry Humphries. It is unsurprising that the darkly gothic Le Fanu should have appealed to Summers who has been described as \"arguably the most seminal twentieth century purveyor of pop culture occultism.\" Nor that Summers, with his theatricality and taste for adopting multiple personalities, should have appealed to the flamboyant Humphries.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"LE FANU, J.S","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55291527659897,"sku":"4554","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/4554.Lefanu_1.jpg?v=1749122187"},{"product_id":"webb-jane-mrs-jane-c-louden-the-mummy-a-tale-of-the-twenty-second-century-1827-4592","title":"The Mummy! A Tale of The Twenty-Second Century.","description":"\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Henry Colburn.. 1827.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eScience fiction, feminism and reanimation. The first appearance of the Mummy. \u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Three volumes. 12mo. (185x113mm). pp. viii, 300; [ii], 348; [ii], 303 [1, publisher's adverts]. Bound without half-titles in volumes II and III (volume I was issued without a half-title). Tan half calf, marbled paper covered boards. Spine with green morocco label, lettered in gilt. Some repairs and strengthening to joints, head and foot of spines and corners. Slight scuffing to spines and rubbing to boards. Internally there is some cracking to the hinges of volume one with gathering H torn at the foot and a little loose. Some foxing and marking and a small black ink stain between pp 239-244 and 251-261 of volume III. Otherwise in very good condition throughout. Front pastedowns have the bookplate of Charles William Orde of Nunnykirk. He was a breeder of racehorses who ran his stud operation from the family house, Nunnykirk Hall. A nice copy of a rare book which has appeared in the auction records only five times in the last 100 years. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Mummy! \u003c\/em\u003erepresents the mingling of two cultural currents. The first is the early nineteenth obsession with ancient Egypt inspired by the work of French archaeologists and scholars following Napoleon's invasion in 1798. Of the many manifestations of contemporary Egyptomania, perhaps the most bizarre were the public \"mummy unwrappings\" which took place in 1821 in a Piccadilly theatre. The second is Mary Shelley's \u003cem\u003eFrankenstein, \u003c\/em\u003ethe begetter of reanimation novels. Jane Webb's (she became Louden on her marriage in 1831 to John, the botanist and early fellow of the Linnean Society) \u003cem\u003eThe Mummy!\u003c\/em\u003e tells of the  Pharoah Cheops brought back life in 2126. Unlike Frankenstein's monster, Cheops is essentially benign dispensing wise advice and benefactions along with observations along the lines of  \"Human nature is still the same even in this remote corner of the globe\", the banality of which evaporates into despair when one remembers that the person uttering these words is nearly 4700 years old so has, presumably, seen a thing or two. \u003cem\u003eThe Mummy!\u003c\/em\u003e is, however, more than just a work of Gothic  early science fiction. By setting the novel in a far distant future ruled by the absolutist Queen Claudia, Webb can hold up a satirical mirror to contemporary society. Her critical standpoint is broadly conservative by the standards of the time (she was no Mary Shelley) save for her belief that the world (or at least England) was better and more peaceably governed by a woman than by a man, thus making \u003cem\u003eThe Mummy\u003c\/em\u003e! something of an early feminist novel. As remarkable are Webb's uncannily accurate predictions of life in the future: coffee machines, smokeless cities a form of internet and AI doctors and lawyers. And although the mummy is now a staple of horror films and novels, one must not forget that Webb's novel marks the emergence of the \"mummy genre\". It is an extraordinary work.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"[WEBB, Jane (Mrs Jane C. Louden)]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55371988795769,"sku":"4592","price":25000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/20250610_151941.jpg?v=1750784679"},{"product_id":"a-square-abbott-edwin-flatland-a-romance-of-many-dimensions-1884-4139","title":"Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions.","description":"\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Seeley \u0026amp; Co.. 1884.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eSecond edition. 8vo. 217x185mm. pp.xvi, 102, [2bl]. With illustrations by the author. Original illustrated limp vellum covered card. Vellum worn, particularly at the spine where there is some loss, corners rubbed. Hinge with upper cover is cracked but holding. Otherwise a very good copy of a fragile book. Upper cover has an ownership inscription. This second edition, issued in the same year as the first, included a six page preface in which a fictional interlocutor addressed, on behalf of Abbott\/A Square two of the criticisms aimed at this strange book. \u003cbr\u003eThe first concerns the surprise of readers at the failure of Flatlanders to perceive thickness, and hence a third dimension, in a Line. Abbott (who is, lest we forget, a two dimensional Square) plays somewhat opaquely with the conceit before turning on his 3D Spaceland critics for their refusal to entertain the possibility of a Fourth Dimension. \"...it is as natural for us Flatlanders to lock up a Square for preaching the Third Dimension, as it is for you Spacelanders to lock up a Cube for preaching the Fourth. Alas, how strong a family likeness runs through blind and persecuting humanity in all Dimensions!\" \u003cbr\u003eThe second criticism was that Abbott was a \"woman-hater\". Women in Flatland are mere Lines, using their pointed ends to stab people. In reply, we are told that A Square has modified his personal views but there is, by way of conclusion, a gloriously condescending dig at the world (our world) of three dimensions. If A Square seemed misogynistic it was because he \"identified himself (perhaps too closely) with the views generally adopted by Flatland and (as he has been informed) even by Spaceland, Historians; in whose pages (until very recent times) the destinies of Women and of the masses of mankind have seldom been deemed worthy of mention and never of careful consideration\".\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"A SQUARE [ABBOTT, Edwin]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57193323725177,"sku":"4139","price":450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/4139_1.jpg?v=1777655204"},{"product_id":"a-square-abbott-edwin-flatland-a-romance-of-many-dimensions-1926-5014","title":"Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions.","description":"With Illustrations by the Author, A SQUARE (EDWIN A. ABBOTT)\u003cbr\u003eOxford: Basil Blackwell. 1926.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eThird edition. 8vo. 217x175mm. pp.xvi, 102, [2bl]. Original wrappers, some slight wear to extremities but otherwise in very good condition throughout and internally excellent. Protected by a transparent plastic cover. The first two editions of Flatland appeared in quick succession in 1884 but the book then fell out of print. Blackwell issued this third edition forty two years later. Textually it is has a few revisions from the second edition but its appearance is almost exactly the same as the earlier ones. It contains the celebrated preface from the second edition in which Abbott defended himself from criticisms aimed at the first edition. It also has an introduction by the physicist William Garnett who was a pupil of Abbott's at The City of London School.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"A SQUARE [ABBOTT, Edwin]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57193324216697,"sku":"5014","price":250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/5014_1.jpg?v=1777655218"},{"product_id":"linnaeus-banks-mrs-g-through-the-night-tales-of-shades-and-shadows-1882-5117","title":"Through the Night: Tales of Shades and Shadows","description":"\u003cbr\u003eManchester and London: Abel, Heywood and Simpkin Marshall. 1882.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eA Dour Weird. A rare collection of Victorian supernatural tales\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 8vo. 183x120mm. pp. [8], 303 [1bl], 20 adverts dated February 1883. Publishers red cloth, block in black. Very light bumping to head and foot of spine. Some foxing but overall a very good copy. Worldcat locates only ten copies and none appear in the auction records.\u003cbr\u003eMrs G. Linnaeus Banks (aka Isabella Banks, née Isabella Varley) is best known for her novel \u003cem\u003eThe Manchester Man\u003c\/em\u003e which tells the story of the growth of the city through the life of its hero Jabez Clegg. Mrs Banks was a leading figure in the literary, intellectual and political life of Manchester.\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eShe was also interested in local folklore and legend and it is these that lie behind\u003cem\u003e Through the Night: \u003c\/em\u003eindeed, in the appendix, Mrs Banks provides the sources for each of the fourteen tales. The stories were originally published in periodicals and were collected here for the first time towards the end of her life. The collection is firmly in the tradition of the Victorian supernatural spine-chiller - ghosts, fairies, dreams, voodoo and curses - and, with its antiquarian interests can perhaps be seen as a precursor to M.R. James. The work is best summed up in the wonderful title of one of the stories - \u003cem\u003eA Dour Weird\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"LINNAEUS BANKS, Mrs G","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57193330508153,"sku":"5117","price":1000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/5117_2.jpg?v=1777655426"},{"product_id":"praed-mrs-campbell-nadine-the-study-of-a-woman-1882-4939","title":"Nadine. The Study of a Woman","description":"\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Chapman \u0026amp; Hall.. 1882.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. Two volumes. Small 8vo. 178x115mm. pp. vi, 199 [1bl]; vi, 208. Collates complete although the pagination in signature H of volume is somewhat awry, the printer having mixed up some pages - but the text is all present. Green cloth, brown morocco label on spine, lettered in gilt. Top edges gilt. Decorated, floral endpapers. Front pastedown has the armorial bookplate of Sir William Eden Bart whose ownership inscription is in both volumes. Slight rubbing to corners but otherwise in fine condition throughout. There is the very occasional light pencil mark or annotation in the margins. Rare in commerce and not common institutionally, OCLC recording fifteen copies.\u003cbr\u003eRosa Campbell Praed (1851-1935) was born into a comfortable Australian colonial family but, on her marriage to Arthur Campbell Praed in 1872, went to live with him on Curtis Island, off Queensland. This was a hard, wild life and so when she began writing fiction, her experiences there shaped her authorial voice. While on Curtis Island, she also became interested in spiritualism and the supernatural. In 1876, following the failure of their farm, the Praeds came to London and Rosa's career as a novelist began. She was successful, popular and feted forming links with Wilde, Kipling and Bram Stoker. Most of her books are set in Australia and reflect the difficulty of the female experience in the tough, masculine outback. She was critical of the colonial world and painted a sympathetic portrait of Aboriginal people. Another common theme was the challenge of the unhappy marriage. Hers was not a good one and, indeed, in \u003cem\u003eNadine: The Study of a Woman\u003c\/em\u003e, Praed writes about how a woman thrives when she is unmarried and childless.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"PRAED, Mrs Campbell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57193337258361,"sku":"4939","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/4939_1.jpg?v=1777655552"},{"product_id":"shelley-mary-frankenstein-or-the-modern-prometheus-1831-5134","title":"Frankenstein: or the Modern Prometheus","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. 1831.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003eThird edition published with the first illustration of Dr Frankenstein's monster\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eThird edition, published as volume IX of Standard Novels series issued with the first part of The Ghost-Seer. 162x100mm. pp. xii, 202; [2], 163 [5]. Frontispiece and illustrated additional title page. Black half calf, marbled paper covered boards, spine lettered and decorated in gilt. Housed in a green cloth covered dropback box. Rubbing to boards and scuffing to head and foot of spine. Corners bumped. Internally very good but with some foxing and slight soiling. The frontispiece and illustrated title page are somewhat browned. Blank preliminary with a contemporary gift inscription and a later ownership inscription.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eThis is the first Bentley edition, the first to appear in one volume and the first with any illustration. The frontispiece, engraved by W. Chevalier from a painting by Theodor von Holst, shows the monster emerging from a skeleton while Dr Frankenstein runs out of the door in horror. Holst (who was the great-uncle of the composer) studied with Fuseli and illustrated many important literary works especially those of the German romantics and the European gothicists. No-one was better qualified to produce the first illustration of the great gothic monster. Montague Summers, A Gothic Bibliography, p330.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_note\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_prov\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_biblio\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SHELLEY, Mary","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57193337815417,"sku":"5134","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/5134_1.jpg?v=1777655614"}],"url":"https:\/\/voewoodrarebooks.com\/collections\/19th-century-literature.oembed","provider":"Voewood Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}