Literature
Crime & Detective
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Spies Espionage James Bond 007
Austen Bronte
Conrad & Kipling
Dickens & Shakespeare
Greene & Orwell
Hemingway & Steinbeck
Maugham & Waugh
Wodehouse
Antiquarian
Modern
American
Poetry
Espedair Street – with – Canal Dreams -
Iain Banks
1987 - MacMillan, London - First Editions
‘The great white hope of contemporary British literature’ – Fay Weldon
Two fine first editions of Iain Banks’ early novels, both with musical overtones – Espedair Street the story of one-time rock star Daniel Weir who after being abandoned by his friends, contemplates his past and looks toward his future, presented together with Canal Dreams, the tale of world famous cellist Hisako Onoda who, refusing to fly, travels to Europe as a passenger on a tanker bound through the Panama Canal, only to find herself giving an impromptu recital in the shadow of a loaded Kalashnikov...
More details
Price HK$ 1,800
1987 - MacMillan, London - First Editions
‘The great white hope of contemporary British literature’ – Fay WeldonTwo fine first editions of Iain Banks’ early novels, both with musical overtones – Espedair Street the story of one-time rock star Daniel Weir who after being abandoned by his friends, contemplates his past and looks toward his future, presented together with Canal Dreams, the tale of world famous cellist Hisako Onoda who, refusing to fly, travels to Europe as a passenger on a tanker bound through the Panama Canal, only to find herself giving an impromptu recital in the shadow of a loaded Kalashnikov...
More details
Price HK$ 1,800
The Deadly Percheron -
John Franklin Bardin
1947 - Victor Gollancz Ltd, London - First English Edition
A clean sharp copy in a fine and thus rare example of the delicate Gollancz dust jacket.
The first of Bardin’s acclaimed trilogy, which was followed by ‘The Last of Philip Banter’ and ‘Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly’.
More details
Price HK$ 2,500
1947 - Victor Gollancz Ltd, London - First English Edition
A clean sharp copy in a fine and thus rare example of the delicate Gollancz dust jacket.The first of Bardin’s acclaimed trilogy, which was followed by ‘The Last of Philip Banter’ and ‘Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly’.
More details
Price HK$ 2,500
The Yellow Book -
Aubrey Beardsley
April 1894-April 1897 - Elkin Mathews & John Lane, London
A complete, clean and better than normally encountered thirteen volume set of this groundbreaking art nouveau publication, in the publisher’s bright yellow illustrated covers with designs by Aubrey Beardsley. Together with ‘A Selection’ published in 1950 and bound in yellow cloth to match the earlier set. Fourteen volumes in total.
From its initial visually arresting issue, for which Aubrey Beardsley was art editor and for which Max Beerbohm wrote an essay, ‘A Defence of Cosmetics’, ‘The Yellow Book’ attained immediate notoriety.
Published by John Lane and edited by Henry Harland, ‘The Yellow Book’ attracted many outstanding writers and artists of the era, such as Arnold Bennett, Charlotte Mew, Henry James, Edmund Gosse, Richard Le Gallienne, and Walter Sickert.
Although dominated by the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, and his decadent fin de siècle aura, many other distinguished artists contributed to the quarterly, notably Frederic Leighton, Will Rothenstein, Walter Sickert and Philip Wilson Steer; contributors to the text included Max Beerbohm, John Buchan, Baron Corvo, Edmund Gosse, Kenneth Grahame, Henry James, E. Nesbit and W. B. Yeats.
More details
Price HK$ 10,000
April 1894-April 1897 - Elkin Mathews & John Lane, London
A complete, clean and better than normally encountered thirteen volume set of this groundbreaking art nouveau publication, in the publisher’s bright yellow illustrated covers with designs by Aubrey Beardsley. Together with ‘A Selection’ published in 1950 and bound in yellow cloth to match the earlier set. Fourteen volumes in total.From its initial visually arresting issue, for which Aubrey Beardsley was art editor and for which Max Beerbohm wrote an essay, ‘A Defence of Cosmetics’, ‘The Yellow Book’ attained immediate notoriety.
Published by John Lane and edited by Henry Harland, ‘The Yellow Book’ attracted many outstanding writers and artists of the era, such as Arnold Bennett, Charlotte Mew, Henry James, Edmund Gosse, Richard Le Gallienne, and Walter Sickert.
Although dominated by the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley, and his decadent fin de siècle aura, many other distinguished artists contributed to the quarterly, notably Frederic Leighton, Will Rothenstein, Walter Sickert and Philip Wilson Steer; contributors to the text included Max Beerbohm, John Buchan, Baron Corvo, Edmund Gosse, Kenneth Grahame, Henry James, E. Nesbit and W. B. Yeats.
More details
Price HK$ 10,000
The Two Undertakers -
Francis Beeding
1933 - Little, Boston - First American Edition
Featuring Colonel Alistair Granby of C.I.D., aided by Ronald Briercliffe and Hilda von Esseling as they engage in a chess game across Eastern Europe against a fanatical Frenchman’s modern day Assassins who plan the destruction of present-day Germany.
An interesting scenario considering this ‘present-day Germany’ is set in the early 1930’s.
More details
Price HK$ 1,800
1933 - Little, Boston - First American Edition
Featuring Colonel Alistair Granby of C.I.D., aided by Ronald Briercliffe and Hilda von Esseling as they engage in a chess game across Eastern Europe against a fanatical Frenchman’s modern day Assassins who plan the destruction of present-day Germany.An interesting scenario considering this ‘present-day Germany’ is set in the early 1930’s.
More details
Price HK$ 1,800
The Adventures of Augie March -
Saul Bellow
1953 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition, First Issue
‘I am an American, Chicago born – Chicago, that sombre city – and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted.’
Saul Bellow’s masterful novel, tells the story of the eponymous Augie March, a poor Chicago boy growing up during the Great Depression, whose numberless occupations and diverting encounters offer startling extremes of vivid realism and bravura philosophising.
‘The Adventures of Augie March is the Great American Novel. Search no further.’ – Martin Amis.
Winner of the National Book Award, 1954. Named by Time magazine as one of the best 100 novels in the English language published since 1923.
More details
Price HK$ 7,000
1953 - The Viking Press, New York - First Edition, First Issue
‘I am an American, Chicago born – Chicago, that sombre city – and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way: first to knock, first admitted.’Saul Bellow’s masterful novel, tells the story of the eponymous Augie March, a poor Chicago boy growing up during the Great Depression, whose numberless occupations and diverting encounters offer startling extremes of vivid realism and bravura philosophising.
‘The Adventures of Augie March is the Great American Novel. Search no further.’ – Martin Amis.
Winner of the National Book Award, 1954. Named by Time magazine as one of the best 100 novels in the English language published since 1923.
More details
Price HK$ 7,000
The Poisoned Chocolates Case -
Anthony Berkeley
1929 - W. Collins Sons & Co Ltd, London - First Edition
A rare near fine first edition of this highlight of 1920’s crime fiction, and according to Julian Symons in Bloody Murder, 'one of the most stunning trick stories in the history of detective fiction'.
Joan Bendix is killed by a poisoned box of liqueur chocolates that cannot have been intended for her to eat. The police investigation rapidly reaches a dead end. Chief Inspector Moresby calls on Roger Sheringham and his Crimes Circle – six amateur but intrepid detectives – to consider the case. The evidence is laid before the Circle and the members take it in turn to offer a solution. Each is more convincing than the last, slowly filling in the pieces of the puzzle, until the dazzling conclusion.
‘A notable tour de force with no less than six separate solutions, and a veritable textbook of the literature’. – Howard Haycraft, Murder for Pleasure.
More details
Price HK$ 5,000
1929 - W. Collins Sons & Co Ltd, London - First Edition
A rare near fine first edition of this highlight of 1920’s crime fiction, and according to Julian Symons in Bloody Murder, 'one of the most stunning trick stories in the history of detective fiction'.Joan Bendix is killed by a poisoned box of liqueur chocolates that cannot have been intended for her to eat. The police investigation rapidly reaches a dead end. Chief Inspector Moresby calls on Roger Sheringham and his Crimes Circle – six amateur but intrepid detectives – to consider the case. The evidence is laid before the Circle and the members take it in turn to offer a solution. Each is more convincing than the last, slowly filling in the pieces of the puzzle, until the dazzling conclusion.
‘A notable tour de force with no less than six separate solutions, and a veritable textbook of the literature’. – Howard Haycraft, Murder for Pleasure.
More details
Price HK$ 5,000
Death in the House -
Anthony Berkeley
1939 - Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
A rare Berkeley title.
‘Lord Wellacombe, Secretary of State for India, dies whilst giving a speech to introduce a new bill on the floor of the House of Commons. His untimely demise looks like a stroke, but is it mere coincidence that a threat on his life had been made? The bill needs to be passed, but is anyone brave enough to defy the threats and risk potential murder?’
Enter Lord Arthur...
More details
Price HK$ 1,800
1939 - Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
A rare Berkeley title.‘Lord Wellacombe, Secretary of State for India, dies whilst giving a speech to introduce a new bill on the floor of the House of Commons. His untimely demise looks like a stroke, but is it mere coincidence that a threat on his life had been made? The bill needs to be passed, but is anyone brave enough to defy the threats and risk potential murder?’
Enter Lord Arthur...
More details
Price HK$ 1,800
Trial and Error -
Anthony Berkeley
1937 - Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
Dedicated to P. G. Wodehouse.
‘Non-descript, upstanding Mr Todhunter is told that he has only months to live. He decides to commit a murder for the good of mankind. Finding a worthy victim proves far from easy, and there is a false start before he settles on and dispatches his target. But then the police arrest an innocent man, and the honourable Todhunter has to set about proving himself guilty of the murder.’
More details
Price HK$ 2,800
1937 - Hodder and Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
Dedicated to P. G. Wodehouse.‘Non-descript, upstanding Mr Todhunter is told that he has only months to live. He decides to commit a murder for the good of mankind. Finding a worthy victim proves far from easy, and there is a false start before he settles on and dispatches his target. But then the police arrest an innocent man, and the honourable Todhunter has to set about proving himself guilty of the murder.’
More details
Price HK$ 2,800