Island Nights' Entertainments.
Consisting of: The Beach of Falesa, The Bottle Imp, The Isle of Voices. With illustrations by Gordon Browne and W. Hatherell.
London: Cassell & Company Limited, 1893 Stock Code: 144431
First UK edition, first impression with the price facing the half title altered in ink; originally published in the US five days earlier.
This copy is from the library of Percy Lubbock (1879-1965), with his bookplate to the front pastedown and ink ownership inscription to the front free endpaper verso, stating "Eton, May 1895". He was a King's College scholar and a member of the ghost story writer Montague Rhodes James's inner circle. Lubbock would have been present at the now famous ghostly storytelling evenings at King's College in his role as Pepys Librarian at Magdalene College. He became a noted literary critic and editor of Henry James, later setting up home in Italy, with his "Villa Medici" bookplate from that time on the front pastedown.
Description
Octavo. Original blue morocco-grain cloth, titles to spine and front board in gilt, large pictorial block of "Uma" from The Beach of Falesa to front board gilt, fore and bottom edges untrimmed, floral endpapers.
Illustrations
Monochrome frontispiece with tissue-guard, 26 similar plates, colour map. With the 16 pages of publisher's advertisements to rear (dated "7 G-3.93" as usual).
Condition
Cocked, light wear to corners, small split to head of rear joint, two small white stains to rear board, text block slightly shaken, front hinge cracked but firm, occasional light spotting; still, a very good copy.
Bibliography
Beinecke 576; Slater p. 19.
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