{"title":"Victorian 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":"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":"north-w-the-city-of-the-jugglers-or-free-trade-in-souls-1850-4943","title":"The City of the Jugglers; or, Free-Trade in Souls.","description":"A Romance of the \"Golden\" Age.\u003cbr\u003eLondon: H.J.Gibbs.. 1850.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4 class=\"vrb_heading\"\u003e\"Soul exchange\"\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan class=\"vrb_desc\"\u003eFirst edition. 199x120mm. pp. xii, 250 [2bl, 5 publisher's adverts, 1bl]. Frontispiece and three etchings by F.H.T.Bellew. Modern brown cloth, slight rubbing to extremities. Frontispiece is a little chipped along fore-edge and all plates are a little foxed and there is offsetting from them. Some other light foxing and marking elsewhere but otherwise a very good copy of a rare book, only two appearing in the auction records in the last century and OCLC locating only ten copies.\u003cbr\u003eThis 1850 edition was, it seems, the only edition of this strange novel until the University of South Carolina Press reprinted it, with no doubt unintended irony, in the 2008, the year of the great financial crash. \u003cem\u003eThe City of the Jugglers\u003c\/em\u003e is a satire on the stock market frenzies of the 1840 and describes how, following a financial crash, there develops a futures market in human souls. A strange fantasy on the relation between mammon and the spirit. Incidentally, the frontispiece contains a portrait of the author asleep and dreaming of this \"soul exchange\". This is thought to be the only portrait of one of the most elusive of Victorian writers.\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":"NORTH, W","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57193335554425,"sku":"4943","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1484\/0910\/files\/4943_1.jpg?v=1777655498"}],"url":"https:\/\/voewoodrarebooks.com\/collections\/victorian-literature.oembed","provider":"Voewood Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}