Fiction

The Invisible Island – Alexander MacDonald – 1911

A Story of the Far North of Queensland … by Alexander McDonald and illustrated by Charles M Sheldon.

Published by Blackie & Sons, London, Glasgow, octavo 360 pages with pictorial image to front cover and spine. A little age otherwise a very good copy and especially clean internally.

The book opens on an island in the south west of the Gulf of Carpentaria … “Through the dank, shimmering heat haze the island loomed in ghostly outline”

Six full page illustrations including the frontispiece.

Adventure and gold in the Far North

$60.00

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The Abbe Prevost – A Play by Helen Waddell – First Limited Numbered Signed edition – 1933

Superior production Published by Constable, London in 1933. Signed by the author and numbered 267 of a limited issue of 750 copies. Printed at the “Raven Press” in Harrow with a frontispiece engraved by Horace Walter Bray. Printed on thick cream paper rough cut to fore-edge, gilt to top. Original quarter velum over beige cloth covered boards. Gilt titles to front and spine.

Very good condition … note on en paper inviting all communications to Miss Waddell’s agent at Lincoln’s Inn.

A Play by esteemed Irish Playwright Helen Waddell, in a Prologue and Three Acts, over 57 pages, with Dramatis Personae of eight. The Prologue is set twenty years after the main events in the Library of the Chateau of the Prince de Conti. Act I is set in Lenski’s lodgings at the Hague in 173 and II and II in Prevost’s garret in Drury Lane, London in 1733.

Abbe (Antoine Francois) Prevost (1697-1763) was a Benedictine Priest who fled France for London in 1728 after falling out with the Abbot. He became a teacher and writer and after a love affair with a pupil fled London for the Hague in 1730. There he met the beautiful Lenski (described by others as a lady of doubtful character) … got into trouble with creditors and fled back to London. It is these events which are the subject of this historical drama.

Back in London, Prevost was briefly imprisoned for forgery. By 1735 he was forgiven by the Catholic faith and returned to Paris in 1735. A prolific writer, whilst all this was going on he published Manon Lescaut in 1731… one of Voyager’s favourites.

A glimpse into the 18thC Life of Abbe Prevost

$60.00

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Steve Young or the Voyage of the “Hvalross” to the Icy Sea – Fenn – circa 1915

The author George Manville Fenn was a prolific writer of adventure stories for the young in the Victorian era.

Published by Partridge and Co, London. Octavo, 416 nicely illustrated. Evenly browned internally otherwise a very good copy. Embossed illustrated boards and spine in near fine condition. Looks a beauty.

A rare book and we cannot find the title on his “official’ list of publications This edition circa WWI era .. we cannot find any other contemporary copies available.

Hvalross is Norwegian for Walrus. Steve Young is an orphan whose uncle, Captain Young has disappeared on a voyage in and around Spitzbergen in the Arctic Ocean. The Captain’s friends charter a boat the Norwegian “Hvalross” to search for him. Sixteen year old Steve goes along much to the disgust of the ships Doctor who thinks young fellows are just a nuisance. Gales, storms, intense cold and Polar Bears … strong currents complete darkness all add to the adventure.

Scarce adventure on the “Walrus” up around Spitzbergen …

$60.00

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The Cruise of the “Cachalot” Round the World after Sperm Whales – Frank Bullen – 1899

Published by Smith and Elder, a second edition, London 1899 in the more upmarket binding with the striking gilt whale to the front board.

Large octavo, 380 pages with 7 pages of plates and a folding map.

Bullen, a homeless waif, went so sea at twelve years old. After six years he landed at New Bedford, Massachusetts where he secured a berth on the “Cachalot” a whaler that would be his home for the next three years. A ripping yarn of fact and fiction actually based on the authors experiences on the “Splendid” of New Bedford in whaling grounds off “the Solanders, Vau Vau and the Australian Gulf”.

Admired by Rudyard Kipling as the best Whaling Narrative.

Best Whaling Story according to Kipling

$140.00

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The Quiet American – Graham Greene

This is the Book Society in conjunction with Heinemann, London issued the same year as the principal first.

Octavo, 247, aged around page edges, private bookplate on paste down under front jacket flap. Full dust jacket in pretty good condition. All up a good to better copy of a desirable issue.

Later turned into a classic movie (how many of Green’s novels have not been?) based in Indo-China a striking story of new and old world

Greene classic – 1955 Edition

$50.00

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Peril on Mars – Patrick Moore

Published by Burke, London a second edition 1961. Octavo, 158 pages. Missing its front free endpaper and with a gift inscription on the title. Dust jacket a little tatty at the top but really quite scarce and a sought after book.

Patrick Moore, Astronomical Hero had the longest ever running television series “The Sky at Night” – he saw it all – In the late 1950’s he turned his hand to science fiction writing and here we are on his favourite planet Mars.

Continues the story of Maurice Gray and Bruce Talbot told in “The Voices of Mars” … ten years later the Mars colony has grown from their earlier journey to rescue Dr York. Now on the lonely Mars satellite, Deimos, they receive an unexpected visitor and a desperate SOS from the Lowell Dome … it all gets very interesting and Martian!

Patrick Moore Rarity

$40.00

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The Invisible Island – Alexander MacDonald – 1911

The Abbe Prevost – A Play by Helen Waddell – First Limited Numbered Signed edition – 1933

Steve Young or the Voyage of the “Hvalross” to the Icy Sea – Fenn – circa 1915

The Cruise of the “Cachalot” Round the World after Sperm Whales – Frank Bullen – 1899

The Quiet American – Graham Greene

Peril on Mars – Patrick Moore

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