Home / Browse / Travel & Exploration / Through the Dark Continent.
STANLEY, Henry Morton.
Through the Dark Continent.
or the sources of the Nile around the great lakes of Equatorial Africa and down the Livingstone River to the Atlantic Ocean.
Publisher: New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1878
Stock code: 49349
Price: £750 Currency Conversion
First US Edition in the publisher's de luxe binding. Account of Stanley's controversial Trans-African Expedition of 1874-7. Stanley finally dispelled Livingstone's notion that the "Lualaba was the source of the Nile and vindicated Speke's claim that the lake seen on his expedition with Burton was indeed one of the sources." (Howgego) However, acclaim for his success in "solving the remaining mysteries of African geography" (ODNB) was tempered by criticism that his manner of of carrying through the expedition amounted to "exploration by warfare." This copy with the carte-de-visite of publisher J. Abner Harper tipped in at the front endpapers of Volume I, inscribed; "For Dr. J. S. Thorne with New Years Greetings." and dated 1879.
2 volumes, octavo. Publisher's brown half morocco on marbled boards, titles gilt to spines which are gilt in compartments, raised bands, marbled edges and endpapers. Portrait frontispiece in each volume and 32 plates, numerous wood-engravings to the text, many full-page, 10 maps, 2 large folding coloured maps in end-pockets to each volume, one double-page and one folding. A little rubbed at the extremities, still presents well on the shelf, light marginal toning to the text, some page corners creased from being turned down, contemporary ownership inscriptions in pencil to prelims, a very good set.
