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The Splendid Idle Forties. Stories of Old California -
Gertrude Atherton, Harrison Fisher (illustrator)
1902 - The Macmillan Company, New York - First Edition
‘Perhaps the best known collection of stories of that romantic period of California history when the incoming Americans were first intermingling with the Californians of rancho and presidio...’ – The Zamorano 80: A Selection of Distinguished California Books Made by Members of the Zamorano Club.
A fine bright example, of this collection of short stories, illustrated with eight plates by Harrison Fisher.
‘The finest stories ever written about early California’ – Phil Townsend Hanna.
The stories are: The Pearls of Loreto; The Ears of Twenty Americans; The Washtub Mail; The Conquest of Dona Jacoba; A Ramble with Eulogia; The Isle of Skulls; The Head of a Priest; La Perdida; Lukari's Story; Natalie Ivanhoff: A Memory of Fort Ross; The Vengeance of Padre Arroyo; The Bells of San Gabriel; and When the Devil was Well.
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Price HK$ 3,500
1902 - The Macmillan Company, New York - First Edition
‘Perhaps the best known collection of stories of that romantic period of California history when the incoming Americans were first intermingling with the Californians of rancho and presidio...’ – The Zamorano 80: A Selection of Distinguished California Books Made by Members of the Zamorano Club.A fine bright example, of this collection of short stories, illustrated with eight plates by Harrison Fisher.
‘The finest stories ever written about early California’ – Phil Townsend Hanna.
The stories are: The Pearls of Loreto; The Ears of Twenty Americans; The Washtub Mail; The Conquest of Dona Jacoba; A Ramble with Eulogia; The Isle of Skulls; The Head of a Priest; La Perdida; Lukari's Story; Natalie Ivanhoff: A Memory of Fort Ross; The Vengeance of Padre Arroyo; The Bells of San Gabriel; and When the Devil was Well.
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Price HK$ 3,500
The Works of Jane Austen. Being: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park -
Jane Austen, Charles Brock and Hugh Thomson (illustrators)
1895 to 1897 - Macmillan and Co., London - First Thomson or Brock Illustrated Editions
‘I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.'
An elegantly bound five volume set of Austen's novels, each being the first edition to be illustrated by Hugh Thomson with the exception of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ which is the first edition to be fully illustrated by Charles Brock. Profusely illustrated throughout, and with an introduction by Austin Dobson in each volume.
‘Affectation of candour is common enough—one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone.’
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Price HK$ 24,000
1895 to 1897 - Macmillan and Co., London - First Thomson or Brock Illustrated Editions
‘I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.'An elegantly bound five volume set of Austen's novels, each being the first edition to be illustrated by Hugh Thomson with the exception of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ which is the first edition to be fully illustrated by Charles Brock. Profusely illustrated throughout, and with an introduction by Austin Dobson in each volume.
‘Affectation of candour is common enough—one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone.’
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Price HK$ 24,000
Mr. Fortune Explains; Case for Mr. Fortune; Mr. Fortune Wonders; Shadow on the Wall -
H. C. Bailey
1930 - Ward, London - First Editions
Three first editions of these short story collections, together with the first full length novel, Shadow on the Wall, all featuring Doctor Reggie Fortune, a remarkable detective whose rotund frame conceals a razor-sharp mind and a fighting spirit. ‘Scotland Yard’s foremost pathologist, a master of forensic evidence, whom nothing escapes’. A true champion of the oppressed, Fortune will never let a murderer escape justice—whether his victim was royalty or the lowest of the low.
Mr. Fortune Explains: Eight ‘explanations’ - The Picnic, The Little Milliner, The Wedding Ring, The Football Photograph, The Rock Garden, The Silver Cross, The Bicycle Lamp,and The Face in the Picture.
Case for Mr. Fortune: Eight ‘cases’ - The Greek Play, The Mountain Meadow, the Pair of Spectacles, The Bunch of Grapes, The Sported Oak, The Oak Gall, The Little Dog, and The Walrus Ivory.
Mr. Fortune Wonders: Eight stories - The Cigarette Case, The Yellow Diamonds, The Lilies of St Gabriel’s, The Gipsy Moth, The Fairy Cycle, The Oleander Flowers, The Love Bird, and The Old Bible.
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Price HK$ 2,000
1930 - Ward, London - First Editions
Three first editions of these short story collections, together with the first full length novel, Shadow on the Wall, all featuring Doctor Reggie Fortune, a remarkable detective whose rotund frame conceals a razor-sharp mind and a fighting spirit. ‘Scotland Yard’s foremost pathologist, a master of forensic evidence, whom nothing escapes’. A true champion of the oppressed, Fortune will never let a murderer escape justice—whether his victim was royalty or the lowest of the low.Mr. Fortune Explains: Eight ‘explanations’ - The Picnic, The Little Milliner, The Wedding Ring, The Football Photograph, The Rock Garden, The Silver Cross, The Bicycle Lamp,and The Face in the Picture.
Case for Mr. Fortune: Eight ‘cases’ - The Greek Play, The Mountain Meadow, the Pair of Spectacles, The Bunch of Grapes, The Sported Oak, The Oak Gall, The Little Dog, and The Walrus Ivory.
Mr. Fortune Wonders: Eight stories - The Cigarette Case, The Yellow Diamonds, The Lilies of St Gabriel’s, The Gipsy Moth, The Fairy Cycle, The Oleander Flowers, The Love Bird, and The Old Bible.
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Price HK$ 2,000
Feersum Endjinn – SIGNED -
Iain M. Banks
1994 - Orbit, London - First Edition
A fine copy of Banks’ science-fiction saga, signed by him on the title page.
As the Encroachment looms not far from the towering walls of Serehfa Fastness, King Asijine goes to war with the Engineers, his chief scientist, Gadfium, receives a mysterious message she has been waiting for from the Plain of Sliding Stones, and Bascule the Teller, in search of an ant, enters the chaos of the crypt...
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Price HK$ 2,000
1994 - Orbit, London - First Edition
A fine copy of Banks’ science-fiction saga, signed by him on the title page.As the Encroachment looms not far from the towering walls of Serehfa Fastness, King Asijine goes to war with the Engineers, his chief scientist, Gadfium, receives a mysterious message she has been waiting for from the Plain of Sliding Stones, and Bascule the Teller, in search of an ant, enters the chaos of the crypt...
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Price HK$ 2,000
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...
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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...
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Price HK$ 1,800
The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont -
Robert Barr
1905 Circa - George Bell & Sons, London and Bombay - First Colonial Edition
The rare first collection of Eugène Valmont mysteries, the most successful literary French detective of his era, and the first in a long line of humorous detectives. Created not by a French writer but by a Scotsman who had grown up in Canada and returned to the UK to forge a literary career, founding The Idler magazine together with Jerome K. Jerome in 1892.
Although Robert Barr’s Eugène Valmont has Sherlock Holmes-like qualities, he is ‘a much more tongue-in-cheek creation’. ‘The title of the book seems ironic. We see very few of his triumphs. The very first story explains why he has had to leave France to avoid becoming a laughing stock and, in the rest of the tales, he fails far more often than he succeeds. Yet none of these setbacks ever daunts him or dents his supreme self-confidence. ‘I have had my failures of course,’ he acknowledges but he remains a happy egotist. Whether dealing with a gang of anarchists in ‘The Siamese Twin of a Bomb-Thrower’ or flirting with the supernatural in ‘The Ghost with the Club-Foot’, his sense of style and his almost Poirot-like conceit never desert him.’ (Nick Rennison, from the preface to the Gaslight Crime edition).
It appears this ‘First Colonial Edition’ was published by George Bell in 1905, the year before the ‘First Edition’ of Hurst & Blackett. The adverts included are dated July 1905 and September 1905. Although it contains the same short stories, the titles and chapter headings match those of the 1906 American edition, and those of the original stories printed in Windsor Magazine and Pearson’s Magazine in 1904-5.
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Price HK$ 4,500
1905 Circa - George Bell & Sons, London and Bombay - First Colonial Edition
The rare first collection of Eugène Valmont mysteries, the most successful literary French detective of his era, and the first in a long line of humorous detectives. Created not by a French writer but by a Scotsman who had grown up in Canada and returned to the UK to forge a literary career, founding The Idler magazine together with Jerome K. Jerome in 1892.Although Robert Barr’s Eugène Valmont has Sherlock Holmes-like qualities, he is ‘a much more tongue-in-cheek creation’. ‘The title of the book seems ironic. We see very few of his triumphs. The very first story explains why he has had to leave France to avoid becoming a laughing stock and, in the rest of the tales, he fails far more often than he succeeds. Yet none of these setbacks ever daunts him or dents his supreme self-confidence. ‘I have had my failures of course,’ he acknowledges but he remains a happy egotist. Whether dealing with a gang of anarchists in ‘The Siamese Twin of a Bomb-Thrower’ or flirting with the supernatural in ‘The Ghost with the Club-Foot’, his sense of style and his almost Poirot-like conceit never desert him.’ (Nick Rennison, from the preface to the Gaslight Crime edition).
It appears this ‘First Colonial Edition’ was published by George Bell in 1905, the year before the ‘First Edition’ of Hurst & Blackett. The adverts included are dated July 1905 and September 1905. Although it contains the same short stories, the titles and chapter headings match those of the 1906 American edition, and those of the original stories printed in Windsor Magazine and Pearson’s Magazine in 1904-5.
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Price HK$ 4,500
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Price HK$ 5,000