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VARNEY THE VAMPIRE OR THE FEAST OF BLOOD...
London: Printed and Published by E. Lloyd, 12, Salisbury-Square, fleet-Street, n.d., [1847]. Octavo, pp. [1-4] [1] 2-584 577-584 593-868 [note: issue 74 is misnumbered issue 73 and the pagination of number 73 is duplicated], printed in double columns, numerous woodcut illustratioins, nineteenth-century three-quarter brown polished calf and marbled boards. First edition. The two parts numbered 73 are present, but part 74, pp. 585-592, chapters CXXVI-CXXVII, is missing. A lurid penny dreadful published initially as a serial in 109 weekly issues, 1845-1847, and here as a book in 1847. This long novel (864 double-column pages; 220 chapters) was a major influence on later vampire fiction. It includes many of the now standard vampire tropes and it is also the first example of the "sympathetic vampire," a vampire who despises his condition but is nonetheless a slave to it. "The first appearance of the vampire Sir Francis Varney marks a lurid achievement of the horrific; his tinlike eyes, taloned hands, and terrifying teeth are calculated to elicit shudders and revulsion. His victimization of young lovelies places him in line with Stoker's DRACULA and a host of other vampires whose intentions are undeniably sexual ... A pulp classic no aficionado of horror fiction can ignore" (Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV). "... unquestionably the most famous of the Lloyd bloods ... A striking example of low-level popular fiction for the working classes (and adolescents) ...." (Bleiler). [Reference: Baron, ed., Fantasy and Horror (1999) 1-132. Baron, ed., Horror Literature 2-87. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 1629. Summers, A Gothic Bibliography, p. 543. Tymn, ed., Horror Literature 2-81. Bleiler (1978), p. 172. Reginald 14580].
THRILLERS: STARTLING TALES BY WELLS, DOYLE, ROHMER, ROBERTS AND OTHERS.
New York: Edward J. Clode, Inc., 1929. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v-vi [vii-viii] 9-313 [314-316: blank] [note: last leaf is a blank], original green cloth, front and spine panels stamped in gold. First edition. Collects seventeen stories by Charles G. D. Roberts, Guy Boothby, H. G. Wells, Sax Rohmer, Arthur Conan Doyle, C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne, Louis Becke, and others.
REMARKABLE TRIALS AND INTERESTING MEMOIRS, OF THE MOST NOTED CRIMINALS, WHO HAVE BEEN CONVICTED AT THE ASSIZES, THE KING'S-BENCH BAR, GUILDHALL, &c. FOR HIGH-TREASON, MURDER, CONSPIRACY, RAPE, HIGHWAY, FELONY, BURGLARY, IMPOSITION, AND OTHER ATROCIOUS CRIMES, VILLAINIES, AND MISDEMEANOURS. FROM THE YEAR 1740, TO 1764. WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR MOST MEMORABLE EXPLOITS, ADVENTURES, CONFESSIONS, AND DYING-BEHAVIOUR. In Two Volumes ...
London: Printed for W. Nicoll, at the Paper-Mill, in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1765. 12mo, two volumes, pp. [1-2] [i-iii] iv-x [xi-xiv] [1] 2-336; [i-viii] [1] 2-358, full calf, all panels ruled in gold, edges speckled red. First edition. Highway robbery, piracy on the Thames, murder, rape, a midwife tried for "not doing his duty," and more. Female miscreants are well represented. Many of the cases concern conspiracy, forgery. counterfeiting, and fraud. [Reference: ESTC T114036].
BEYOND.
[New York]: A Berkley Medallion Book published by Berkley Publishing Corporation, [1963]. Small octavo, cover painting by Richard Powers, pictorial wrappers. First edition. Berkley Medallion F712. Paperback original. Collection of nine stories from Beyond magazine. Authors include Ray Bradbury, Fredric Brown, Theodore Sturgeon, Algis Budrys and others.
BEST CRIME STORIES.
London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1948. Octavo, black cloth, spine stamped in gold. Later (fifth) edition. Collects twenty-two stories. The jacket claims twenty-five stories but only twenty-two on the contents page, so it is unknown to this cataloger if several of the stories have been dropped from this later printing.
A CRYSTAL AGE.
London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887. Octavo, [1-4] [1] 2-287 [288: blank], + 32-page publisher's catalogue dated "1886-7" inserted at rear, original black cloth, front panel stamped in red, spine stamped in gold and red, rear panel stamped in red. First edition. The binding is the preferred state with the publisher's monogram in red on the rear cover. The book is found with and without publisher's catalogues inserted at rear; this copy has the earliest form of the catalogue, dated 1886-7 on page [1]. The author's anonymously published second book and first novel. A Utopian novel of a matriarchal pastoral society. "A pioneering and affectively powerful work of ecological mysticism..." - Barron (ed.): Fantasy Literature 2-87. Hudson's "fine quasi-utopian novel of the far future... depicts small, self- sufficient, matriarchally organized households living in harmony with Nature. The protagonist, tragically, cannot adapt to their pastoral way of life...Both stories [A CRYSTAL AGE and GREEN MANSIONS (1904)] are remarkable anticipations of modern ecological mysticism." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, p. 593. [Reference: Anatomy of Wonder (1995) 1-51, Negley: Utopian Literature: A Bibliography #596, Sargent: British and American Utopian Literature pp. 38].