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The three ‘Kai Lung’ collections - The Wallet of Kai Lung - Kai Lung's Golden Hours - and - Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat -
Ernest Bramah
1923 - Doran, New York - First American Editions (Wallet is the second edition, but first in the Nadejen dust jacket).
‘There are few situations in life that cannot be honourably settled, and without loss of time, either by suicide, a bag of gold, or by thrusting a despised antagonist over the edge of a precipice upon a dark night.’
Three volumes presenting the first three collections of stories featuring the inimitable protagonist Kai Lung, in which he must pit his wits against his arch nemesis Ming-Shu, escape the clutches of greedy bandits, and attempt to beguile them with seemingly unrelated parables with the help of his love Hwa-Mei, eventually becoming known as ‘an itinerant teller of tall tales set in a China that never was’.
All presented in their wonderful dust jackets illustrated by Theodore Nadejen. Kai Lung's Golden Hours, also contains an enthusiastic introduction by Hilaire Belloc.
A seminal influence in the genre of speculative fiction, Bramah’s works have been compared with those of Jerome K. Jerome, and PG Wodehouse. His work went on to inspire writers such as Dorothy L Sayers, Jorge Luis Borges, and George Orwell, among many others.
‘It is a mark of insincerity of purpose to spend one's time in looking for the sacred Emperor in the low-class tea-shops’.
More details
Price HK$ 2,200
1923 - Doran, New York - First American Editions (Wallet is the second edition, but first in the Nadejen dust jacket).
‘There are few situations in life that cannot be honourably settled, and without loss of time, either by suicide, a bag of gold, or by thrusting a despised antagonist over the edge of a precipice upon a dark night.’Three volumes presenting the first three collections of stories featuring the inimitable protagonist Kai Lung, in which he must pit his wits against his arch nemesis Ming-Shu, escape the clutches of greedy bandits, and attempt to beguile them with seemingly unrelated parables with the help of his love Hwa-Mei, eventually becoming known as ‘an itinerant teller of tall tales set in a China that never was’.
All presented in their wonderful dust jackets illustrated by Theodore Nadejen. Kai Lung's Golden Hours, also contains an enthusiastic introduction by Hilaire Belloc.
A seminal influence in the genre of speculative fiction, Bramah’s works have been compared with those of Jerome K. Jerome, and PG Wodehouse. His work went on to inspire writers such as Dorothy L Sayers, Jorge Luis Borges, and George Orwell, among many others.
‘It is a mark of insincerity of purpose to spend one's time in looking for the sacred Emperor in the low-class tea-shops’.
More details
Price HK$ 2,200
Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat -
Ernest Bramah
1928 - The Richards Press Ltd., London - First Edition, in first issue dust jacket
‘The more you can consume, the less will be this self-conscious person’s shame at the insipidity of what he puts before you; the longer you can tolerate his worn-out roof, the greater will be the confidence with which he can henceforth continue to dwell beneath it...’
The third collection of stories in Brahmah’s ‘Kai Lung’ series: a brilliant literary fusion of myths, legends, and cosmology from the Golden age of Han, tied together with Bramah’s keen eye for combining historic fiction and comedy. Kai Lung, our hapless yet loveable protagonist, must once again defeat his enemies and win back his kidnapped wife; Hwa-Mei, by weaving together seemingly unconnected parables and tales until an overarching narrative is skilfully revealed.
A seminal influence in the genre of speculative fiction, Bramah’s works have been compared with those of Jerome K. Jerome, and PG Wodehouse. His work went on to inspire writers such as Dorothy L Sayers, Jorge Luis Borges, and George Orwell, among many others.
More details
Price HK$ 2,000
1928 - The Richards Press Ltd., London - First Edition, in first issue dust jacket
‘The more you can consume, the less will be this self-conscious person’s shame at the insipidity of what he puts before you; the longer you can tolerate his worn-out roof, the greater will be the confidence with which he can henceforth continue to dwell beneath it...’The third collection of stories in Brahmah’s ‘Kai Lung’ series: a brilliant literary fusion of myths, legends, and cosmology from the Golden age of Han, tied together with Bramah’s keen eye for combining historic fiction and comedy. Kai Lung, our hapless yet loveable protagonist, must once again defeat his enemies and win back his kidnapped wife; Hwa-Mei, by weaving together seemingly unconnected parables and tales until an overarching narrative is skilfully revealed.
A seminal influence in the genre of speculative fiction, Bramah’s works have been compared with those of Jerome K. Jerome, and PG Wodehouse. His work went on to inspire writers such as Dorothy L Sayers, Jorge Luis Borges, and George Orwell, among many others.
More details
Price HK$ 2,000
The Life & Works of Charlotte Brontë & her Sisters. -
Anne, Charlotte & Emily Brontë, Mrs. Gaskell
1910 - Smith, London - The Hawthorn Edition
In seven finely bound volumes by Bayntun-Riviere. Together with the works of the Brontë sisters are introductions by Mrs. Humphrey Ward and Clement K. Shorter, as well as copious additional notes, introductions and prefaces by others. With portraits and illustrations.
Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre, Emma, Shirley, Stories from Angria, The Professor, Villette, Poems, Memoir of Emily Jane Brontë, and Memoir of Anne Brontë.
Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights, and Poems.
Anne Brontë - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Agnes Grey, and Poems.
Mrs. Gaskell - The Life and Works of Charlotte Brontë and her Sisters.
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Price HK$ 26,000
1910 - Smith, London - The Hawthorn Edition
In seven finely bound volumes by Bayntun-Riviere. Together with the works of the Brontë sisters are introductions by Mrs. Humphrey Ward and Clement K. Shorter, as well as copious additional notes, introductions and prefaces by others. With portraits and illustrations. Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre, Emma, Shirley, Stories from Angria, The Professor, Villette, Poems, Memoir of Emily Jane Brontë, and Memoir of Anne Brontë.
Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights, and Poems.
Anne Brontë - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Agnes Grey, and Poems.
Mrs. Gaskell - The Life and Works of Charlotte Brontë and her Sisters.
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Price HK$ 26,000
1914 and Other Poems -
Rupert Brooke
1915 - Sidgwick & Jackson Limited, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of Brooke’s second and most famous collection of poetry, published two months after his death, which contains, amongst others, both ‘The Soldier’ and ‘The Dead’. With portrait frontispiece from a photograph taken by Sherrill Schell in 1913, and the delicate and scarce dust jacket which is in two pieces but shows well on the book itself. Housed in later quarter red morocco slipcase.
‘If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.’
More details
Price HK$ 12,000
1915 - Sidgwick & Jackson Limited, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of Brooke’s second and most famous collection of poetry, published two months after his death, which contains, amongst others, both ‘The Soldier’ and ‘The Dead’. With portrait frontispiece from a photograph taken by Sherrill Schell in 1913, and the delicate and scarce dust jacket which is in two pieces but shows well on the book itself. Housed in later quarter red morocco slipcase.‘If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.’
More details
Price HK$ 12,000
The Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke: With a Memoir -
Rupert Brooke, Edward Marsh
1918 - Sidgwick & Jackson, London - First Edition
‘Out of the nothingness of sleep,
The slow dreams of Eternity,
There was a thunder on the deep:
I came, because you called to me.’ – The Call.
A comprehensive collection of Brooke’s poems, finely bound by Bayntun Riviere of Bath, and housed in matching fleece-lined morocco clamshell case.
Illustrated with two black and white plates from photographic portraits of Rupert Brooke. In addition this is the first edition of Edward Marsh’s ‘Memoir’ and an introduction to that memoir by Rupert Brooke’s father, published later as a separate volume.
‘If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.’ – The Soldier.
More details
Price HK$ 11,000
1918 - Sidgwick & Jackson, London - First Edition
‘Out of the nothingness of sleep,The slow dreams of Eternity,
There was a thunder on the deep:
I came, because you called to me.’ – The Call.
A comprehensive collection of Brooke’s poems, finely bound by Bayntun Riviere of Bath, and housed in matching fleece-lined morocco clamshell case.
Illustrated with two black and white plates from photographic portraits of Rupert Brooke. In addition this is the first edition of Edward Marsh’s ‘Memoir’ and an introduction to that memoir by Rupert Brooke’s father, published later as a separate volume.
‘If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.’ – The Soldier.
More details
Price HK$ 11,000
Selections from the Popular Poetry of The Hindoos -
Thomas Duer Broughton (editor translator)
1814 - Printed by Whittingham and Rowland for John Martin, London - First Edition
A pretty and scarce first edition of the first published anthology of Hindi Poets. Internally fine and unopened.
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Price HK$ 5,000
1814 - Printed by Whittingham and Rowland for John Martin, London - First Edition
A pretty and scarce first edition of the first published anthology of Hindi Poets. Internally fine and unopened.
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Price HK$ 5,000
Sick Heart River -
John Buchan
1941 - Hodder Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of Buchan’s last book, published posthumously.
The review in the April 1941 edition of Punch sums it up nicely:-
‘"If thou hast a woe, tell it not to the weakling, tell it to thy saddle-bow, and ride singing forth." John Buchan took this Proverb of Alfred as text for his book Sick Heart River (Hodder and Stoughton, 8/3) which is as good a sermon to lift the downhearted as has ever been given in the form of a novel. When Sir Edward Leithen, a former British Attorney-General, received his notice of death from a specialist, "his memory sprawled over places he had seen" and he decided to go to Quebec to make his soul and to "die standing". One journey led to another in quest of a famous French-Canadian who, in a mood of mental sickness, had suddenly left his wife and important office in New York; and was "wanted" by American people because of his genius over international affairs. The tale that follows of two white men, their half-breed guides and some "Hare Indians", their fight with and against Nature in a lonely place is soul-stirring in more than one way and makes as brave a book as the late Governor-General of Canada ever gave us.’
The fictional Sick Heart River is in the real region of the Nahanni River in Canada's Northwest Territories. It is in some of the most rugged terrain in Canada. The area was only just being mapped when Buchan, as Governor-General Lord Tweedsmuir, passed nearby during his voyage down the Mackenzie River in the summer of 1937. Having heard much about the mysterious South Nahanni, Buchan was fascinated by it and wanted to go there, but did not make it before he died in February, 1940. [Galbraith, 2001]
More details
Price HK$ 3,500
1941 - Hodder Stoughton Limited, London - First Edition
A fine first edition of Buchan’s last book, published posthumously. The review in the April 1941 edition of Punch sums it up nicely:-
‘"If thou hast a woe, tell it not to the weakling, tell it to thy saddle-bow, and ride singing forth." John Buchan took this Proverb of Alfred as text for his book Sick Heart River (Hodder and Stoughton, 8/3) which is as good a sermon to lift the downhearted as has ever been given in the form of a novel. When Sir Edward Leithen, a former British Attorney-General, received his notice of death from a specialist, "his memory sprawled over places he had seen" and he decided to go to Quebec to make his soul and to "die standing". One journey led to another in quest of a famous French-Canadian who, in a mood of mental sickness, had suddenly left his wife and important office in New York; and was "wanted" by American people because of his genius over international affairs. The tale that follows of two white men, their half-breed guides and some "Hare Indians", their fight with and against Nature in a lonely place is soul-stirring in more than one way and makes as brave a book as the late Governor-General of Canada ever gave us.’
The fictional Sick Heart River is in the real region of the Nahanni River in Canada's Northwest Territories. It is in some of the most rugged terrain in Canada. The area was only just being mapped when Buchan, as Governor-General Lord Tweedsmuir, passed nearby during his voyage down the Mackenzie River in the summer of 1937. Having heard much about the mysterious South Nahanni, Buchan was fascinated by it and wanted to go there, but did not make it before he died in February, 1940. [Galbraith, 2001]
More details
Price HK$ 3,500
East of Mansion House -
Thomas Burke
1928 - Cassell and Company, London - First Edition
‘A London native, Burke knew the city intimately and brought it to life in essays, mood pieces, and short stories, most of which had a melodramatic atmosphere of crime.’ – Stenbrunner & Penzler.
More details
Price HK$ 1,800
1928 - Cassell and Company, London - First Edition
‘A London native, Burke knew the city intimately and brought it to life in essays, mood pieces, and short stories, most of which had a melodramatic atmosphere of crime.’ – Stenbrunner & Penzler.
More details
Price HK$ 1,800