Search results for: 'the works'
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(BLAKE, William.) ELLIS, Edwin John, & W. B. Yeats. The Works of William Blake.London : 1893
First edition, one of 150 large paper copies in the deluxe binding; there were also 500 copies in cloth. Yeats had "marked down William Blake as a master early on, and with Edwin Ellis produced a large-scale commentary on Blake's prophetic writings in 1893. While often erratic and idiosyncratic, it helped establish the importance of Blake's esoteric... Learn More£2,000.00Stock Code: 136158
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LAWRENCE, Margery. Nights of the Round Table.London : [1926]
First edition, first impression, of Lawrence's first collection of horror stories. The collection was reviewed at the time as "a remarkable compendium, exhibiting considerable sensitivity to the methods and concerns which were to remain central to the tradition of the English supernatural short story long after 1926" (Orlando). Margery Lawrence (1889-1969)... Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 139274
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WELLS, H. G. The First Men in the Moon.Indianapolis : 1901
First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title "To Miss Healey with kindest regards from H. G. Wells". Elizabeth Healey was a fellow student of Wells at the Normal School (later Royal College) of Science, South Kensington, London, and a long-term friend and correspondent. The American edition of The First... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 138945
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HODGSON, William Hope. The Ghost Pirates.London : 1909
First edition, first impression. Presentation copy of Hodgson's landmark work, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "N. Rendall, Esq. from William Hope Hodgson - 'May we be friends e'en though we disagree'. Sept. 21st '09." Rare inscribed, with no other copies traced. Hailed as one of the best novel-length works of supernatural fiction... Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 101607
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CHAMBERS, Robert W. The King in Yellow.Chicago & New York : 1895
First edition of this collection of short stories, the second book from American author Robert W. Chambers (1865-1933). Bleiler called The King in Yellow "a mind destroying book" (Bleiler) and "one of the most important works of supernatural horror between Edgar Allan Poe and modern horror fiction" (Bleiler, Supernatural Fiction Writers, p.... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 139919
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![[The Lord of the Rings:]](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/3/132466.jpg)
TOLKIEN, J. R. R. [The Lord of the Rings:]London : 1954-5
First editions, first impressions, the Return of the King in third state with the signature mark "4" and the sagging line of type on p. 49 (previously identified by Hammond as first state). The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the most influential literary works of the century. Its first reception was mixed: favourable and perceptive reviews from... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 132466
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MACDONALD, George. Works of Fancy and Imagination.London : 1871
First collected edition of the works of George MacDonald, a friend and mentor of Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and a pioneering figure in the development of English fantasy writing. Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 132658
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DICK, Philip K. The Collected Stories.Los Angeles, CA, Columbia, PA : 1987
First edition, first impression, signed limited issue. An unnumbered "presentation copy", with the author's signature mounted to the limitation leaf of Volume 1, from a total run of 100 signed copies. A further 400 unsigned copies were also released. This posthumous collection of Dick's works include a preface by the author adapted from a letter written... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 131931
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YEATS, W. B. The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems.London : 1889
First edition, first issue, a major literary association copy, inscribed by Yeats on the front free endpaper, "To the poet of the North Countrie, Joseph Skipsey, with the author's kind regards". In addition, Yeats has made minor corrections to the text on four pages. The inscription shows Yeats's admiration for the Newcastle pitman poet, whom he honours... Learn More£9,750.00Stock Code: 140222
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DUNSANY, Lord. Selections from the Writings.Dundrum : 1912
First edition thus, first impression, one of 250 copies. Lord Dunsany, "unquestionably one of the most important writers of heroic fantasy of the century" was a friend of W. B. Yeats's through their mutual involvement in the Abbey Theatre, where Dunsany's first contribution to the to the Irish theatre movement, The Glittering Gate, was performed... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 139300
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NESBIT, Edith. The Story of the Amulet.London : 1906
First edition, first impression, of the concluding work in Nesbit's children's trilogy. Preceded by Five Children and It and The Phoenix and the Carpet, Nesbit's time-travelling narrative is notable for including a trip into the future, featuring Nesbit's vision of a socialist utopia in which H. G. Wells is venerated as a reformer. Nesbit was one of... Learn More£850.00Stock Code: 140035
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WHITE, T. H. The Sword in the Stone.London : 1938
Rare original page proofs for The Sword in the Stone, with a manuscript annotation to the title page, bound with the original wrappers. The Sword in the Stone is "a delightful blend of medieval lore and humorous commentary and in many ways the finest light fantasy of the century" (Bleiler). It was the most significant contribution... Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 138836
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MIRRLEES, Hope. Lud-in-the-Mist.London : 1926
First edition, first impression, of this important fantasy novel by the Bloomsbury poet Hope Mirrlees (1887-1978), which "beautifully handles... Olde Englisshe folk culture in the mode later made popular by Tolkien" (Blieler). In 2011 Neil Gaiman described the work as "one of the finest fantasy novels in the English language... It is a little golden... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 112936
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BERESFORD, J. D. The Hampdenshire Wonder.London : 1911
First edition, first impression, signed by the author facing the title page. The author's first book and a significant work in early science fiction, Beresford's novel was among the first to include a "Wunderkind", a child prodigy enhanced through scientific meddling. Bleiler considers it to be "the first important novel about a superman, and in many... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 130366
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WARNER, Rex. The Aerodrome. A Love Story.London : 1941
First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the front free endpaper. The Aerodrome was Warner's wartime dystopia, his third novel, in which he "reverted in part to a non-realistic, expressionist technique. Generally regarded as his best novel, this deeply gloomy work also sees human values collapsing before a rising tide of nihilistic materialism"... Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 136856
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O'BRIEN, Flann. The Third Policeman.London : 1967
First edition, first impression, of this grimly comic "posthumous fantasy"; the protagonist of which is a murderer who, unknowingly, has himself been murdered, and finds himself in a warped alternate Ireland
The surreal landscape, imbued with a sense of the literary weird, is signalled in the work by what Jorge Luis Borges called "games with time... Learn More£800.00Stock Code: 137399
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BAUM, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.Chicago : 1900
First edition, in the rare and desirable first state of both text and binding. The text has the following points: on p. 2, the publisher's advertisement has a box; on p. 14, line 1 has the misprint "low wail on the wind"; p. 81, line 4 from bottom has "peices" uncorrected; p. 227, line 1 begins: "While Tin Woodman"; the colophon is in 11 lines within... Learn More£55,000.00Stock Code: 115135
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CLARKE, Arthur C. Against the Fall of Night.[Hicksville, NY] : 1953
First edition in book form, first printing, inscribed by the author on the title page "To Timothy Maclaren from Arthur C. Clarke". Clarke's pioneering work of science fiction originally appeared as a novella in the November 1948 issue of the magazine Startling Stories. In 1951 Clarke revised and expanded the text, for publication in the present... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 138965
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MALORY, Sir Thomas. The Birth, Life, and Acts of King Arthur,Westminster : 1893-4
First Beardsley edition, in the original parts, number 70 of 300 deluxe copies on Dutch handmade paper, from a total edition of 1,800. The book was issued in 12 parts in wrappers, with the purchaser given the choice of sending it back to the publisher, who bound them in vellum or cloth, or to a binder of their own.
In 1892, seeking to emulate the... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 136961
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HEINLEIN, Robert A. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.New York : 1966
First edition, first printing. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Polly, with love, Bob", additionally signed by the author above his printed name on the title page. The recipient is believed to by Polly Freas, wife of Frank Kelly Freas, the illustrator to Heinlein's The Door into Summer (1957). Polly... Learn More£12,500.00Stock Code: 131839
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[KEIGHTLEY, Thomas.] The Fairy Mythology.London : 1828
First edition, first issue, of this influential anthology of fairy tales and lore by the Irish writer Thomas Keightley (1789-1872). It is a notably international survey, with chapters on Persian and Arabian romance, the Icelandic Sagas and Eddas, Scandinavian elves, dwarves, and mermaids, German, Swiss, Greek, Italian, French, Spanish, Finnish, Slavic,... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 137746
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ČAPEK, Karel. Továrna na absolutno. (The Absolute at Large.)Brno : 1922
First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the first blank to the young actress Táňa Čuprová (b.1900) and dated in the year of publication. The recipient is noted in the Czech National Theatre archives as having started work there in this year, going on to become art director from 1945. It was at the Prague National Theatre that Čapek's... Learn More£3,750.00Stock Code: 139802
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READ, Herbert. The Green Child.London : 1935
First edition, first impression, of art-critic Herbert Read's only novel, uncommonly found in such bright condition. The Green Child is "part adventure story, part contribution to utopian literature" in which "the fantastic element is borderline science fiction" (ODNB; Bleiler). The work contrasts two examples of potential utopian societies;... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 38508
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[SWIFT, Jonathan.] Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.London : 1726
True first edition of Swift's masterpiece, Teerink's A edition, with the first state frontispiece. The first state frontispiece has the inscription beneath the portrait, which in the second state was placed around the portrait; a third state is a retouched version of the second.
The strong elements of political satire perhaps intrigued the contemporary... Learn More£125,000.00Stock Code: 130055
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![Looking Backward 2000-1887. [Together with:] Equality.](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/3/137673.jpg)
BELLAMY, Edward. Looking Backward 2000-1887. [Together with:] Equality.Boston : 1888 & 1897
First editions, first printings, of Bellamy's enormously popular Looking Backward 2000-1887 and its sequel Equality. First issue of Looking Backward with the misprint "wore" in line 8 on page 210 and the J. J. Arakelyan slug on the copyright page; Equality in the rare first-issue dust jacket. Looking Backward... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 137673
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(ARABIAN NIGHTS.) BURTON, Richard F. The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night.[London] : [c.1903]
The illustrated Benares edition, number 980 of 1,000 sets. This set comprises ten volumes of Arabian Nights and seven Supplemental Nights, and features artwork by Albert Letchford originally produced for the Smithers-Nichols edition of 1897. Unlike previous editions, the Burton Club editions consisted of 17 volumes rather than the 16 volumes of the... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 137603
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(LOVECRAFT, H. P.) Two books from Lovecraft's classical reference library,New York : 1898-9 and 1896
H. P. Lovecraft's own classical reference copies from his library, each volume with his ink ownership inscription to the front free endpaper: Greek Civilization with "H. P. Lovecraft, Providence, R.I.", and the Latin Literature volumes with his name and fastidious manuscript shelf marks "16:46 / 525:1" and "16:46 / 525:2". There is also an additional... Learn More£4,750.00Stock Code: 139230
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(HAMMETT, Dashiell, ed.) H. P. LOVECRAFT, et al. Creeps by Night: Chills and Thrills.New York : 1931
First edition, first printing, in the rare dust jacket; preceding the UK edition published by Gollancz as Modern Tales of Horror in 1932. Bleiler comments that "the circumstances of the following anthology are not known, but Hammett was a very well-read man, and it is entirely possible that he assembled it". Recent research reveals that Arkham House... Learn More£8,500.00Stock Code: 132150
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![[A Song of Ice and Fire:]](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/3/137883comp.jpg)
MARTIN, George R. R. [A Song of Ice and Fire:]Atlanta, GA/Burton, MI : 2000-2015
Deluxe signed limited edition, set "K" of the rare deluxe issue of only 52 lettered sets, each title signed by the author and illustrators, and additionally remarqued (a small original illustration added by hand) by the respective illustrators on the limitation leaf, the first five works of the Song of Ice and Fire cycle. There were also 500... Learn More£27,500.00Stock Code: 137883
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LEWIS, M. G. Tales of Wonder.London : 1801
First edition, this copy in a handsome contemporary binding and somewhat later gifted by Lord Chandos Leigh (17911850), poet and school-friend of Lord Byron, to his nephew Frederick Leigh Colvile (18191886), author, antiquary, and Warwickshire vicar. The book has the recipient's bookplate and is inscribed, "from my uncle Chandos Leigh".
This is... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 121349
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LINDSAY, David. A Voyage to Arcturus.London : 1920
First edition, first impression, of this "remarkable work". The first edition of Lindsay's classic novel was printed in a run of 1,250 copies, with around 500 to 600 copies released in the first issue binding as here, with gilt lettering and ruling to spine (Bleiler). Lindsay's most famous and influential work, A Voyage to Arcturus is "a metaphysical... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 139374
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EWERS, Hanns Heinz. Alraune.New York : 1929
First edition in English, first printing, inscribed by the illustrator with an original signed drawing in pencil and green pen to the second half-title, signed "for Dunninger, Mahlon Blaine 1936", depicting a demon pulling a mandrake-like woman from a hat.
The recipient Joseph Dunninger (1892-1975) was one of the foremost magicians and mentalists... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 123320
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![Die Verwandlung [Metamorphosis].](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/3/138328.jpg)
KAFKA, Franz. Die Verwandlung [Metamorphosis].Leipzig : 1915
First edition, first printing. The first of Kafka's masterpieces was issued both in boards and, as here, in wrappers. Sales were unimpressive; after a year or so the numerous unsold copies were stamped on the title pages with the official stamp of the German censors. This copy has no stamp to the title page and is therefore of the original issue.
With... Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 138328
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(WELLS, H. G.) MORE, Sir Thomas. Utopia.London : September 1908
First edition of More's Utopia with Wells's introduction, this copy inscribed by Wells incorporating one of his "picshuas", a sketch of a baby-faced flower denominated (somewhat in the manner of Edward Lear's nonsense botany), "To sketch Utopiana Grandiflora, from H. G. Wells". This edition appeared as part Blackie & Son's Red Letter Library... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 137554
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(KAFKA, Franz.) COESTER, Otto. Promĕna. (Metamorphosis.)Moravia : April 1929
Suite of illustrations for the first Czech edition, number 97 of 120 copies only, signed by the illustrator on the half-title in pencil and printed by the Graphic Union in Prague under the supervision of Josef Čapek. The illustrations were drawn by Coester in 1927 and are the first to be created for Kafka's masterpiece. The illustration of The... Learn More£5,750.00Stock Code: 140159
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LE GUIN, Ursula K. Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; and City of Illusions.New York : 1966, 1966, 1967
First editions, first printings, of Le Guins's first three book publications, each copy inscribed on the title page to the same family: "For Patrick Christopher also a first born and his parents Ursula K. Le Guin, 1987"; "For Celia, Greg, & Patrick Christopher with best wishes, Ursula K. Le Guin, 1987"; and "For Patrick Christopher, Celia, + Greg,... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 139753
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BOULLE, Pierre. La Planète des singes.[Paris] : 1963
First edition, first impression, number 172 of an unspecified limitation (there were also a small number of large paper copies in wrappers.) A seminal work of 20th-century science fiction, La Planète des singes was the inspiration for the Planet of the Apes film series. Learn More£950.00Stock Code: 139368
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ČAPEK, Karel. Krakatit.London : 1925
First edition in English, first impression, publisher's presentation copy with tipped-in slip before the half-title reading "with Mr Geoffrey Bles's Compliments". Capek's science fiction novel, first published in Prague in 1924, centres on the invention of a catastrophically potent explosive, named to echo the devastating volcanic eruption of Krakatoa.... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 136864
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HUGHES, Ted. Tales From Ovid.London : 1998
First edition, signed limited issue, signed by the author; this is the binder's copy, marked "0/5". The signed limited edition consisted of 310 copies, of which 10 were reserved for the author. This work was the winner of the 1997 Whitbread Book of the Year award. Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 138031
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SEABORN, Capt. Adam (pseud.) Symzonia: A Voyage of Discovery.New York : 1820
Rare first edition, first impression, of the book rightly considered the first science fiction novel written by an American. Published two years after Frankenstein, the book utilizes the hollow earth theory of John Cleves Symmes Jr. to create the first in a long line of hollow-earth lost race fiction.
Captain Adam Seaborn is a pseudonym in keeping... Learn More£15,000.00Stock Code: 135743
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WARNER, Sylvia Townsend. Lolly Willowes,London : 1926
First edition, first impression, signed by the author on the front free endpaper. Lolly Willowes is Warner's first novel and rarely found signed. In the work Laura "Lolly" Willowes leaves her life as a "professional aunt" in London for independence in the village of Little Mop where "she is initiated into the local witch cult and has intellectual... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 139081
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[DE QUINCEY, Thomas.] Confessions of an English Opium-Eater.London : 1822
First edition in book form of the author's iconic first book. First published in the London Magazine, September-October 1821, Confessions was a groundbreaking and influential text, presenting an account of the author's hallucinations, ecstasies, and torments as a result of taking opium. It was the first book in English to deal in detail... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 136014
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CARROLL, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.London : 1866
First published edition, with the earlier pale blue endpapers (rather than the more usual dark green). The book was originally printed in Oxford at the Clarendon Press in June 1865, but Dodgson heard that the book's illustrator John Tenniel was dissatisfied with its quality, so he suppressed the whole edition of 2,000 copies. The book was entirely reset... Learn More£39,500.00Stock Code: 136032
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TYSSOT DE PATOT, Simon. Voyages et avantures de Jaques Masse.Bourdeaux [i.e. The Hague] : 1710 [i.e. around 1714]
First edition of this early utopian novel, "the best-known of all the radical philosophical novels of the Early Enlightenment" and which "surpassed practically every other work of philosophical fiction of the age for notoriety" (Israel, pp. liii and lvi). The novel details a Frenchman shipwrecked off South Africa - the co-ordinates are given as 60E/44S,... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 123204
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LINDSAY, David. Devil's Tor.London : 1932
First edition, first impression, of Lindsay's magnum opus, the fifth and final novel published in his lifetime. In Devil's Tor, "the central characters realise that they are the last representatives of an ancient spiritual force which must renew itself through their marriage. Lindsay here subverts the reader's novelistic expectations by revealing... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 136486
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POE, Edgar Allan. Tales of Mystery and Imagination.London : 1919
First Clarke edition, deluxe signed limited issue, number 106 of 170 copies signed by the illustrator and specially bound in full vellum. Harry Clarke (1889-1931) was a leading figure in the Irish arts and crafts movement, particularly noted for his work as a stained-glass artist. This book, with Clarke's imaginings of Poe's macabre Tales, was the first... Learn More£6,500.00Stock Code: 137514
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(OPIUM FANTASY.) [LIGNE, Charles-Joseph de?] Voyage à Visbecq.[Brussells? : ca.1794]
Original manuscript of an extraordinary dreamlike fantasy which describes an opium-induced journey to the centre of the earth. The existence of the novel remained unknown for more than 200 years until it was discovered in a Parisian bookshop and published in 2007 with a long essay by Éric Lysøe (see below).
The text is written in the first person,... Learn More£8,000.00Stock Code: 139702
